Early Friday morning, the campus chilled water distribution system, responsible for air conditioning campus buildings, experienced a significant service disruption. Teams from both Emergency Management and Infrastructure and Sustainability worked quickly to alert the campus community and identify the locations of the disruptions.
To allow for repairs, the team initiated a partial shutdown of the campus cooling system, which affected more than 40 buildings on campus. (See the attached map with affected buildings indicated in red.) Building managers, faculty, and researchers collaborated on mitigation strategies with more than 50 spot coolers deployed throughout campus.
Repair work is ongoing, and many campus buildings remain without air conditioning. As a result, changes to final exam schedules and locations, research mitigation strategies, and altered campus operations are expected to continue.
Crosland Tower and the Price Gilbert Library are affected but remain open, however students are encouraged to relocate to the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons where temperatures are more comfortable. The John Lewis Student Center, Stamps Commons, Stamps Health Services, and the Ferst Center for the Arts are closed until further notice.
The campus chilled water system will remain unstable until the primary leak, which has been isolated, has been completely repaired. The repair will allow the two campus chiller water plants to be reconnected to restore full service to campus. In the interim, a series of bypasses and temporary connections have been installed to minimize the effects on campus.
This is the first time these chiller plants have operated in this mode and additional disruptions are expected. All requests for assistance, including spot coolers, should be routed through your building manager.
For current information about the status of the chilled water outage, including changes to campus operations, visit this webpage.
