notes & other tunnels
During his research in the late eighties, Paul Rice (n.d.) noted the location of present and past access points and possible past tunnels on the north end of the campus. He stated that:
The construction documents for Collegiate Park (1998) indicate that the tunnel Rice describes ended where the club house of Collegiate Park currently stands. This matches Rice’s description of the steam plant being across from Kay’s Hall (Rice, n.d.). This tunnel was demolished during the construction of the student apartments; the construction documents note that the tunnel is approximately 10’x10’x200’ (Collegiate Park, 1998). This 200-foot length matches with the illustration of the tunnel on the construction documents for the North Parking Facility (2000). In the parking facility documents, the tunnel is labeled as abandoned and has the same 10’x10’ measurements and is shown to end at the extent that the Collegiate Park (1998) documents describe. The Student Union (2001) documents show the existence of this tunnel south of the building, but nowhere else.
- Topside, if you walk westward from the Reng Center toward the Saudi Arabian Customs Center, you'll find the mother of all manhole covers just to the north of the sidewalk. This puppy is nothing to bark at. It is a good six feet in diameter, and takes three people to open with crow bars. It is in the roof of an underground chamber, and we never managed to find out what was down there. But we do know this chamber is next to the basement kitchens below the cafeteria. There is a companion manhole cover just around the corner of the building near the loading docks. We've seen pictures of the north end of campus and proved the existence of a boiler room at the north end in what is now an open field just north of the Reng Center parking lot, but we can't find any topside entrances to the tunnels in this field. When the northern boiler plant was destroyed, it was covered quite efficiently. This steam plant was across the street from what is now Kays Hall. This field used to be where the married housing was located, but the trailers were later moved to the south east corner of campus
The construction documents for Collegiate Park (1998) indicate that the tunnel Rice describes ended where the club house of Collegiate Park currently stands. This matches Rice’s description of the steam plant being across from Kay’s Hall (Rice, n.d.). This tunnel was demolished during the construction of the student apartments; the construction documents note that the tunnel is approximately 10’x10’x200’ (Collegiate Park, 1998). This 200-foot length matches with the illustration of the tunnel on the construction documents for the North Parking Facility (2000). In the parking facility documents, the tunnel is labeled as abandoned and has the same 10’x10’ measurements and is shown to end at the extent that the Collegiate Park (1998) documents describe. The Student Union (2001) documents show the existence of this tunnel south of the building, but nowhere else.