East campus chilled by steam line shutdown

A temporary shutdown of the campus’s main steam feed has impacted more of the campus than was anticipated because of the cold weather, leaving some eastern buildings without heat or hot water on Monday (Dec. 7).

As one of the final steps to upgrading the steam system, a shutdown was scheduled this weekend that directly impacted California, Wheeler and South Halls along with Doe Library. Because of the cold weather, the demand for steam increased significantly and the rest of the steam system has not been able to keep up. Unfortunately, this means that a number of buildings on the east side of campus (roughly east of Dwinelle Hall) have limited or no heat and hot water.

Physical Plant-Campus Services staff have turned off the air intake systems in a number of buildings to reduce the amount of cold air being pulled in from the outside. The steam line upgrade project team is working to determine how soon the main steam line can be turned back on; once it is restored there should be enough steam to meet the campus’s needs although it will take a few hours for systems to heat back up.