UM tunnel project keeps on steamin’

In 1984, a dangerous little word was floating around the University of Montana campus: asbestos.
Beneath the campus, in a labyrinth of steam tunnels dating back to 1897, asbestos insulation speckled the hot air pumping into university buildings. With the health of the campus in mind, then-Vice President Glen Williams took the word and ran with it.
Soon after Williams began his campaign, asbestos crews began working on campus to remove or contain the asbestos, a fiber that can cause health problems when inhaled. By the 1990s, all of the asbestos that hadn’t been removed had been safely contained, according to Greg Plantz, program director for Facilities Services.

In 1984, a dangerous little word was floating around the University of Montana campus: asbestos.
Beneath the campus, in a labyrinth of steam tunnels dating back to 1897, asbestos insulation speckled the hot air pumping into university buildings. With the health of the campus in mind, then-Vice President Glen Williams took the word and ran with it.
Soon after Williams began his campaign, asbestos crews began working on campus to remove or contain the asbestos, a fiber that can cause health problems when inhaled. By the 1990s, all of the asbestos that hadn’t been removed had been safely contained, according to Greg Plantz, program director for Facilities Services.
“That was William’s first thing,” Plantz said. “Get this campus safe, and that’s what we did.”
Much of the contained asbestos remained buried in the tunnels, however. It wasn’t until the university began work on its $10 million, two-year steam tunnel overhaul in 2007 that the rest of the asbestos began being systematically removed.
Costs for the asbestos removal were included in a grant issued by the Montana State Legislature in 2007.
The process involves isolation of asbestos areas, air samples before and after removal, and installation of new fiberglass insulation.
The steam tunnels’ revamp serves two purposes in two phases, according to Mike Panisko, another program director for Facilities Services. 
Phase one of the project, completed last year, involved repairing and removing asbestos in portions of the tunnels and replacing them with fiberglass insulation. The only portion of the steam tunnel system still waiting for contained asbestos removal is the Corbin/Brantly complex. Due to unpredictable weather in Montana, work on that section will be completed sometime this year, Panisko said. 
Repair of old sections of the tunnels was also important to the first phase. 
“Some of the buried lines are 60 to 80 years or older,” Panisko said. “We were losing pressure and water in the buried lines and we couldn’t tell where.”
The second and current phase offers a solution to those problems. Phase two is intended to bring the ever-expanding campus up-to-date with the shared heating system the tunnels provide by repairing and/or installing new tunnels and connecting them to the old network.
“Most of this has been trying to catch up to where the University has been going the last 15 to 25 years,” Panisko said. “The system is kind of in loops. We had sections of the loops that weren’t connected.”
Phase two of the project will see the various tunnels connected, including connection to the new Education Building, he said. The current area being affected is parking lot B next to Schreiber Gym.
Panisko praised the steam tunnels as a heating method.
“It’s a very efficient way to heat buildings,” he said.
According to both Plantz and Panisko, the asbestos removal team had their work cut out for them before the second phase could start.
“They’ve been working these two summers staying ahead of the pipe fitters,” Plantz said.
Heating efficiency has decreased slightly with the shift from asbestos to fiberglass installation, however, Plantz said.
“(Asbestos) is the best stuff there is, but it’s also the most dangerous stuff there is,” Plantz said.
laura.barnes@umontana.edu