CU-Boulder Maintenance Supervisor Ken Morse opens the door to an underground steam tunnel with the assistance of Lead Mechanic Steve Burke on Monday. Built between the 1920s and 1960s, the steam tunnels house utility lines and connect a number of the older campus buildings. (CU Independent/Lauren Walter)
CU students walk over it everyday. Grass? Concrete? Gum? No. Tunnels.
Beneath the CU campus lies approximately 7.5 miles of steam tunnels, said Director of Facilities Operations John Morris. While the tunnels are meant for utility maintenance, students have been known to explore the tunnel depths.
Andie Ininns, a 21-year-old senior architectural engineering major said he’s heard of students checking out the tunnels.
“People go down there and explore them,” Ininns said. “From what I hear, you can get almost anywhere on campus through the tunnels.”
Morris said there are nine tunnels, eight on the main campus and one in Williams Village. Morris said the tunnels vary in width and height, but most of them are walkable at about 5 feet high by 6 feet wide.
According to CU’s Facilities Management website, the tunnel system “transports steam, condensate, chilled water, compressed air, electrical and telecomm,” through pipes and wires.
Most of the walkways were built between 1920 and 1960, according to the site.
Morris said walk-through service tunnels were common in the utility industry until about the 1980s, when the industry shifted to the less- expensive direct-buried option, where the utility lines are buried in the ground.
The newer buildings on campus, like the C4C and the Visual Arts Complex, are not connected to the tunnel system, Morris said.
Ininns said he thinks students go into the tunnels for adventure, as well as an adrenaline rush.
“I guess it’s kind of scary down there from what people have told me,” he said.
There are websites dedicated to steam tunnel maps, such as SteamTunnel.net, which links CU’s steam tunnels.
The CU Tunnel Expeditions website, which was last updated in 1997, contains a detailed journal entry describing a tunnel path that runs from underneath the Engineering Center to Libby, as well as the Kittridge Community.
Steam tunnels run under campus. (CU Independent/Lauren Walter)
Cody Hoskins, a 23-year-old senior film major, said he thinks students who break into the tunnels are foolish.
“I think it’s really stupid, it sounds stupid,” Hoskins said. “Those tunnels are full of pipes…they could cause a problem [being in the tunnels].”
Due to the confined spaces and potentially dangerous equipment, only trained workers are allowed in the tunnels, Morris said. To further view CU Boulder’s Confined Space Entry Policy click here.
Morris said keeping students out of the tunnels is a safety concern.
“We certainly ask that they don’t make attempts to do it, for their own safety,” he said. “We haven’t removed all the asbestos in there so if they are in there, they can get exposed to that and the steam is at 300 degrees, so you could get burned. Someone could get stuck in there. It’s dangerous to be in there, without us knowing you’re there.”
In addition to possible injury, students can also face campus punishment for entering the tunnels, said CU Spokesperson Malinda Miller-Huey.
“If a student goes down in the tunnel that would be considered unauthorized entry and it would be a violation of the student code of conduct,” Miller-Huey said.
Students would first attend a hearing with the Office of Student Conduct and, if they are found in violation, punishment could range from a warning to expulsion, Miller-Huey said.
To reduce student break-ins, Morris said CU’s Facilities Management replaced the tunnel openings with lockable doors designed to let workers out quickly if needed, but are harder to open.
“If you get into the tunnels you can get into some of the buildings on campus and you can get into the buildings that are supposed to be locked, so we pretty much tried to lock all [the tunnel openings] down,” he said.
To maintain safety, Morris said he hopes students do not try to enter the tunnels.
He said, “We prefer that students don’t try to get in, but we aren’t offering that as a challenge.”
This story was inspired by Resolving Door, a site where CU students ask questions and get answers.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Rose Heaphy at Josephine.heaphy@colorado.edu.
