UW underground: A subterranean campus snakes beneath your feet
Physical plant steamfitter Les Breunig squeezes through a narrow space in an underground steam tunnel near the Charter Street heating plant. The dark, labyrinthine tunnels snake for several miles under campus buildings, roads and other property. Photo: Jeff Miller
A dark, labyrinthine world concealed below campus shares at least one thing in common with hell: heat.
A century-old system of tunnels supplies steam to heat most campus buildings, snaking along for several miles beneath campus buildings, roads and open spaces, says Kevin Corcoran, shop supervisor for the physical plant.
Built in 1898, two sets of steam tunnels encase the pipes that now carry steam from the main heating station on Charter Street to most buildings on campus. A second facility at Walnut Street supplements the Charter plant, Corcoran says.
Despite its age, the “district heating and cooling system” is not considered old-fashioned, Corcoran says. Instead, it’s economical when compared to the cost of running a separate heating system in most buildings on campus.
Widely used in Europe – and even downtown Milwaukee – the steam tunnel system allows workers to operate just one heating system, rather than a whole slew of individual ones. Two pipefitters perform day-to-day maintenance on the campus heating system, he says.
There’s only one way into the tunnels and that’s with a key, Corcoran notes. But “Tunnel Bob,” a human denizen of the deep passages, is not a figment of anyone’s imagination. He has been spotted in the tunnels from time to time, Corcoran notes. Though the itinerant has been lurking around the subterranean campus for years, “it’s not a place you want to go roaming,” Corcoran cautions. “If you happen to step on the wrong thing, you can get yourself cooked.”
 The tunnels can be a bit dank, as ground water leaches through the walls in the tunnel under Charter Street. Photo: Jeff Miller
|
