Ohio University students won’t be able to walk along the path connecting Baker University Center to University Terrace until at least spring semester because of ongoing changes underground.
The path is a construction site for OU’s Capital Improvement Plan to replace a stand along the building chiller system with a looped chilled water system that will be 25 percent more efficient.
The $6 million project, which started in the summer, is planned to be completed in the spring.
The old system connected only one central chiller plant. The new looped system will connect two regional chiller plants to offer faster, colder water and also won’t affect the campus by a power outage, said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities.
“One such chiller might be totally down, but the campus would never know it,” Wyatt said.
After Clippinger Laboratories and Baker Center, the new Schoonover Center’s system will be the first to be added to the chilled water system, which would give the capacity to add Seigfred Hall and McCracken Hall.
“Clippinger has a chiller that breaks every year and by putting the building on the main chilled water line, hopefully the cooling of Clippinger can be more reliable and less hot when air conditioning is needed,” said Mike Gebeke, executive director of Facilities Management.
The path will also be paved and lit for students, Wyatt said.
“It has been a cut-through (path) for many years, but maybe not the safest at night,” Wyatt added.
Crime statistics are not available for this path because it is not an area included in the OU Police Department’s dispatch system. Instead, they are classified as the Baker and Clippinger lots, depending on the location, said OUPD Chief Andrew Powers, in an email.
James Bohland, a senior studying history, agrees that the lights will be beneficial for students walking home late at night.“I used to walk there all the time at night,” Bohland said. “I never felt scared, but I always stepped in puddles.”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
