It’s been almost 30 years to the day since maintenance workers emerged from an Ohio University utility tunnel Oct. 27, 1983.
After 21 days of searching, the workers found exactly what — or who — police officers were looking for: the body of 29-year-old Ali Bulgasem Ali.
Ali, an OU student from Libya, was stabbed 11 times by Merlin Ryan, then 19 years old, and disposed of in the tunnel, according to previous Post articles.
But three decades later, OU Police Chief Andrew Powers said he doesn’t think the university’s sprawling tunnel system poses a similar threat to campus safety.
“Things are different now from what they were 30 years ago,” Powers said. “And that kind of infrastructure has to be protected and hardened more than it was in the 1980s … I don’t think it’s as easy for people to get into them.”
Since 2003, there have been only three OUPD cases relating to the steam tunnels, which provide both heat and electricity to buildings on campus. There were seven trespassers during that timeframe, but none were ever identified, according to OUPD records.
OUPD works with OU Facilities Management to keep grates to the tunnels locked, Powers said, adding that he believes it’s rare to find a steam tunnel grate unlocked on campus nowadays.
But a Post investigation found that on at least three days between Labor Day and Sept. 23, a tunnel access door near the top of Jeff Hill, was unlocked.
“We do try to keep them locked,” said Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for Facilities. He acknowledged that when OU officials become aware that a door is unlocked, “We get them locked pretty quickly.”
When asked to comment on the investigation’s findings, Katie Quaranta, OU’s spokeswoman, said, “Facilities monitors the locks to the tunnels on a regular basis, but sometimes a lock does fail. When it is discovered, it is replaced immediately. Prompt work orders from students, staff and faculty aid in the discovery of those problems.”
Keeping the doors locked is also a matter of keeping would-be trespassers safe from the electricity and intense steam pressure below, university officials said.
Mike Gebeke, executive director of Facilities Management, said electrical wiring in the tunnels can reach 12,000 volts, and steam carried by pipes can get as hot as 350 degrees.
And in tight, underground quarters, Gebeke and Powers said injury is almost unavoidable.
“I don’t think people understand how dangerous those tunnels are,” Powers said. “Steam under high pressure, if there is even just a tiny little leak in a steam pipe and somebody walks past it, it can sever limbs.”
Other people simply don’t even realize the tunnels exist, Powers said.
“I doubt most people realized they were walking on a steam tunnel when they walked in front of Alden Library on Park Place,” he said.
Even though he thinks underground security is tighter than ever before, Powers said the sprawling tunnel system will always be a cause for concern, but he’s “comfortable, at this point in time, that we have a pretty good handle on the steam tunnels.”
— Sara Jerde contributed to this report.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
@SamuelHHoward
