Since early last week, we’ve had issues with the steam pressure valves in Urness Tower, which affects the hot water system in Urness, Mortensen Hall, Christensen Center, Old Main, and Anderson Residence Hall. We had hoped to delay scheduling the repair of this issue until after the end of the semester, but determined we need to be proactive because if the pressure valves fail to function, we would need to do an immediate shutdown of all heat and hot water on campus, with potentially a multi-day outage while we scheduled contractors for an emergency repair.
In order to repair the valves, our steam provider will need to shut off the steam system that provides heat and hot water to all buildings on campus except Hagfors Center, Luther Hall, and Oren Gateway Center. The buildings should maintain residual heat during the shut down, but students, faculty, and staff may want to plan to wear additional layers that day.
Below is a rough schedule of the repair timeline:
1) At 6 a.m. Monday, we will shut off the steam to the campus.
2) Our contractor will install isolation valves in key locations on campus in order to restore steam to the portion of campus not affected by the valves in Urness. This will take approximately six hours.
3) Once the isolation valves are installed, steam will be restored to all buildings except Urness, Mortenson, Christensen, Old Main, and Anderson Residence Hall.
4) Our contractor will then replace the pressure valves in Urness, which they anticipate will take roughly another six hours or so. Once the valves are replaced, steam will be restored to the remaining campus buildings.
Facilities Management has coordinated with several departments, including Residence Life, Dining, Athletics, and University Events, to plan ahead as much as possible for this needed repair. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s efforts to accommodate this maintenance work.