When I received new Provost Kim Schatzel’s email about the busted plumbing in Halle Library last night (see below for the full text of the message), I was reminded of a conversation I had with a neighbor of mine once. This guy is a retired foreman from the Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority, Ypsi’s water and sewer provider. For some reason, we were having an “over the backyard fence” conversation about remodeling basements and he was explaining to me why it’s never a good idea to spend a lot of money on a project like that. ”We got a saying in the sewer business, Steve,” he said: “Shit goes down.”
The short version is it it seems a big drain pipe fell off of some supports in the basement and bad things happened. Among other things, Provost Schatzel’s email says that the repairs are estimated to take a month (which I interpret as meaning at least a month, maybe more), and, during this reconstruction period, we can expect noise and “possibly odors.” Ugh. It sounds like it is just one of those terrible things that sometimes happens, but it also sounds like it’s going to be pretty unpleasant in Halle for a while.
Anyone working over there have any more insight?
By the way, I think this is the first email I’ve received from our new provost. Welcome aboard, Kim! See the full text after the jump.
Here it is:
Dear Colleagues
I wanted to provide you all with an update regarding the Halle Library situation. On Monday, a clamp securing a gravity-fed drain pipe that runs from the building roof to the basement failed. The location of the failure was on the ground floor of the library and resulted in the pipe dropping approximately six feet from its position near the ceiling. This occurred in a finished corridor on the libary’s ground floor.The displacement of the pipe caused damage to the walls, ceiling, sprinkler, network, and electrical systems within/adjacent to that corridor. (see attached photo). Additionally, water damage from the pipe and the sprinkler system resulted. The water damage in the occupied area within/adjacent to the corridor largely resulted from the sprinkler system.
Requisite steps to re-secure the pipe to prevent further damage have been completed. The fire suppression and alarm system are operational. Floors 1-3 of Halle reopened today but we estimate it will take approximately one month to complete repairs necessary to re-open the ground floor.
Steps that will be taken include an inspection of the pipe system to determine that the remainder of the clamps and the pipe itself – it is 200 feet in length – are secure and structurally worthy, repair of the clamp system and pipe as required, as well as repair of the sheetmetal, electrical, network, and drywall affected. Lastly, the water damage will be repaired as well.
During this process there will be construction noise as well as possibly odors from construction. Be assured we will be doing everything we can to mitigate these distruptions and will be closely monitoring their effect on the workplace of our colleagues. An air quality inspection/monitoring system will be installed and remain in place for a period of time after the re-opening of the ground floor.
I will be monitoring the situation and the repair progress on a daiy basis with John Donegan of Physical Plant. I will continue to provide all of you an update on our progress and any other issues that might arise each Friday during the duration of our return to normalcy for Halle.
I want to thank all the faculty and staff, in advance, who are affected by this for their patience and understanding over the next few weeks. It is an extraordinary event and I am indeed grateful for their unwavering commitment to continue to serve and support our students and each other during this time.
Best
KimKim Schatzel,Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs
Eastern Michigan University
106 Welch Hall
Ypsilanti Michigan 48197
Just an FYI that the water that did damage to the library was mainly from the sprinkler system that was triggered when the pipe moved. There was no sewage water involved.
Well, I can still imagine a lot of moldy, water-logged kind of smell. And if was a drain pipe from the roof, I can imagine some sewage-like stuff. Though right now this is just my imagination because I haven’t been over there yet to see what’s what.
Note: My understanding is that this is a return pipe from a cooling tower on the roof. Thus it returns cooled water into the building after it’s gone up to the roof.
They’ve been drying out the carpet all week and there is no water-logged smell at all, as far as I’ve noticed. As someone who just recently dealt with lots of water in her finished basement, I can assure you, it’s not a problem so far. I’ve smelled my share of moldy, water-logged carpet.
The real only issues I can share are that it’s hot in parts of our building, since the chilling going in is very limited, and a ton of faculty and staff have been displaced. Two thirds of our teaching labs are out of commission right now, not to mention Holman and the main IT lab in our building. But so far, noise and odors have been pretty limited. They’re monitoring air quality and taking any and all health-related issues very seriously. As far as I’m concerned, everyone’s been handling this fabulously. It’s just a blessing that nobody got injured when you see how massive that pipe is!
Geoff, I have no idea– only pointing out that “gravity fed drain pipe” sounds kinda bad– and I should also point out that “shit goes down” is as much of a metaphor as anything else here.
For now, I mainly just want to agree with Sarah in that it’s a good thing no one was injured and beyond here because there are certainly plenty of faculty, staff, students, etc. in this area of Halle.
The Physical Plant folks really jumped on this on a variety of fronts – cleanup, resupporting the pipe, etc. To be able to open the main three floors of the Library just two days after the pipe fell is terrific.
Is there something that the contractor did or did not do to cause this failure? That’s quite a large pipe and heavy too.
We really don’t know the reason the pipe fell.
I was working on the ground level yesterday moving materials, and there was no mildew, mold or any other odors. The carpets seemed to be dry already. It’s inconvenient, but not as bad as it could have been.
On the face of available public evidence, I think, Alum, that it’s highly probable that the problem stems from shoddy work by the contractor or the design firm. A state construction job, sub-par in all respects.
Let’s not forget that EMU’s standard approach to infrastructure has ALWAYS been:
“Millions for repair! Not a dime for preventive maintenance!”
Air filters get so clogged they get sucked out of their brackets. Leaking valves are dealt with by laying down gutters to a drain–instead of repairing the leak.
The State builds buildings and then provides absolutely zero maintenance money. I’ll go with the sub-par job by a contractor.