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St. Cloud State University
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Tunnel project put on hiatus
Almost near finish, tunnel project is put on hold for severed optic wires
By Paul Solsrud
Published:
Monday, September 15, 2003
Media Credit: Christine Hunter
Two workers looked over plans near the corner of Third Avenue South and Sixth Street South. between Hill-Case Hall and the Miller Resource Center. The 8-foot by 8-foot underground tunnel project was never completed. Approximately 25 percent of construction remains. The project will commence next year.
The tar and road construction between Hill and Case Hall, the Miller Center and the Performing Arts Center is a deceiving conclusion to a job that is unfinished.
The task of adding an 8-foot by 8-foot tunnel to join the three buildings was decided several years ago. The Miller Center was built with the intent of being a central hub of the campus for communication services.
"(The tunnel needed to be added because) The Miller Center is such a center for communication now," said Steve Ludwig, President of Administrative Affairs.
The tunnel was a mere addition to the already installed maze of underground tunnels that connects all the other buildings on campus except for the Education, ECC, Centennial, and the Administrative Services buildings.
The existing underground tunnels do the same task that the new tunnel will serve, to carry wires as well as heating pipes.
"Three feet of the width will be taken up for wires, fiber optic lines, data lines and condensate and steam lines," Ludwig said.
Ludwig said the size of tunnel will allow for further expansion and the ability for personnel to service the lines in cases of repair or the addition of more lines.
The construction, however, was not completed. Approximately 75 percent of the tunnel has been completed, Ludwig said. The project has been abandoned until next summer due to a severed fiber optic line by the contractor, Landwehr Construction.
Ludwig said after the fiber optic line was hit, and the contractor's insurance company paid to repair the line, the insurance company would not insure Landwehr for the completion of the project. Since contractors need to be insured to work on the campus, SCSU needed to find a new contractor to complete the tunnel.
The completion of the tunnel requires some wires to be moved before the remaining section of tunnel can be completed. SCSU has now hired Qwest Communications to move the wires.
However, due to lost time, the completion date was delayed at least six weeks, pushing the date further into the fall semester.
"(SCSU) then decided to close the excavation back up because it (the excavation) would be too distracting," Ludwig said.
The remaining 100 feet of the tunnel will be completed next summer after the spring semester is complete. Until then the road is temporarily tarred and sidewalks finished temporarily. Some of these fixtures will need to be removed again when the tunnel is finished in spring.
The cost for the tunnel was approximately $600,000 which was part of a $3 million dollar electrical system upgrade which was planned for some time. The funding for the upgrade came from state bonds at no cost to SCSU.
The tunnel project was in addition to several other campus projects which have been proceeding throughout the summer and fall. This spring marked the completion of Lawrence Hall. The $5 million Atwood Memorial Center project is on schedule according to Ludwig. The exterior is anticipated to be finished later this year, and the inside renovation and construction will begin early next year. Excavation around the new stadium site is going as planned said Ludwig. The primary tasks are the repositioning of cables in street. The buses for the remote parking lots will be returning to their previous shorter routes in November after the cable repositioning is done.
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