 "Photo: Lisle Alderton")
A hot pump broke on the boiler in the basement of Rathbone Hall and blew water all over a transformer on Nov. 2. The transformer shorted out, causing the building to lose power.
The reason for the power outage in Rathbone had nothing to do with the deferred maintenance happening around campus, however. The outage was an emergency situation.
A transformer is an electrical device used to divide the 12,500 volts of electricity brought into a building into smaller usable volts, like 110 and 220-volt sections. The transformer provided power to half of Rathbone and the second floor, which is why its library and north hallway still had power.
Little green boxes have been popping up around campus as signs of the maintenance department, in conjunction with an outside contractor, upgrading the electrical lines coming into campus buildings. The boxes are being installed in an effort to rid campus of its “Frankenstein Room,” said Bruce Shubert, vice president of administration and finance, which is where all the on-campus electricity used to come from.
The current electric wires carry 4,160 volts of electricity to each building. The new wiring can carry up to 12,500 volts, said Ed Heptig director of facilities maintenance. When disconnecting the old wiring and connecting the new wires, the electricity to the building must be turned off.
“The planned shutdowns are during hours when classes are not held,” said Will Hirsch, engineering technician with facilities planning. “There are no shutdowns this week for any of the campus.”
No shutdowns are planned for the next two to three weeks while maintenance workers try to figure out where to run lines to the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. The route must be planned along with the design concept of the building before construction can begin.
For other buildings on campus, the maintenance workers must ensure there are no scheduled classes and everyone is cleared from the building for safety, Hirsch said. Facility workers go through each building to make sure no one is inside in case of a fire from the changing of electric lines.
With the higher voltage lines coming in, the older wiring might short circuit, causing an accidental fire when the power is switched back on. Therefore, employees take extra precautions to ensure if a fire breaks out, no one gets hurt.
The upgrading of the electric wire consists of laying four lines, each carrying 12,500 volts, in a giant underground loop encircling main campus. Then maintenance will run more lines to each of the buildings from one of the four main loops.
“There’s 28 buildings in all involved in the main portion of campus, but there are some buildings already on that are needing to be switched out again,” Heptig said. “There are planned outages to convert buildings to different lines to balance out the power.”
In 2007, the Kansas Legislature determined a set amount of funding for colleges and universities in the state to be received over the next five years. K-State was allotted $48.5 million, he said.
The sources of the money come from three sources. The state provided $27 million, and another $18 million was based upon interest earnings held by the university. Heptig said the interest did not perform as well as administrators hoped it would.
“So, less is being done due to the lack of money available,” he said.
The interest provided funding for projects including the electrical upgrade, Ward Hall, Seaton Hall roof, Leasure Hall elevator and McCain Auditorium roof, Shubert said.
The third source is a new source of money, which came last spring through the federal stimulus program. It provided $7.95 million to replace faulty steam lines that run from the power plant to the engineering complex, Seaton Court and Ahearn Gymnasium. That project is estimated to use $2.3 million. The remaining $5.6 million is scheduled to be spent on projects in Justin, Call and Kedzie halls, Shubert said.
The next project on the maintenance department’s list is the steam line replacement, but the department has not yet submitted the project to contractors for bidding, Heptig said.
In addition, the university receives $4.5 million a year from a state-wide tax levy for a “repair and rehabilitation” fund. That money pays for basic repair and maintenance around campus, Shubert said. Those types of repairs include repairing pipes, pumps, maintaining classrooms and painting.
“We are just trying to use the limited funds we get to make progress on the most critical issues,” Shubert said. “And of course there are efforts under way to try to raise some private funds to upgrade the facilities.”
The KSU Foundation has a page on its Web site devoted to the deferred maintenance.
Julie Lea, vice president of communications for the Foundation, said the Kansas Legislature made it possible for donors to receive a tax credit for donating specifically to the maintenance program.
Lea said while campus needs upgrades and repairs, donating to deferred maintenance was probably not high on donors’ heartfelt concerns. So far, the Foundation has received two donations toward the maintenance program, both for $1,000 each: One for McCain, and one for Seaton Court.
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