By Tyler White | Staff Writer
Hidden from the Baylor community underneath campus are tunnels that span the university. As mysterious as that sounds, these tunnels are important pathways for wiring and piping that provide service to numerous buildings across campus.
Dennis Ferguson, electrical engineering systems manager, said the stories of these tunnels no longer existing are not true. The tunnels are still active today and are vital to the operation of buildings throughout campus.
“The purpose of the tunnels was to house all the building utilities in one area or in this one pathway,” Ferguson said.
The tunnels, which have a north and south pathway, run underground from the Baylor Energy Complex across campus, from Waco Hall to North and South Russell Halls. Out of these pathways, the tunnels branch off to service various buildings along these routes.
A 2011 Lariat article mentioned the tunnels were becoming a “tool of the past” as the university worked to move wiring and piping out of the tunnels and bury them in the ground. However, Ferguson said the tunnels are not a tool of the past, and they play an important role in enabling the Baylor Energy Complex to service campus.
Ferguson said wiring was moved out of the tunnels and into the ground because the voltage was too high for service workers and was a safety hazard. However, service workers still go into the tunnels to service the university and ensure the piping is safe and secure.
“The service guys have to go down there and check the valves that spur off into the different buildings along those tunnels,” Ferguson said. “There’s valves in there to control them, and if there’s a pipe that busts in the building, that’s where it’s cut off at.”
In the 2011 Lariat article, former associate vice president of facilities and construction Brian Nicholson said the tunnels can reach very high temperatures. With the steam coming from the Baylor Energy Complex going through them, the temperature can reach more than 85 degrees.
“If you and I walked in the tunnel, we would come out drenched in sweat because the temperature is so hot,” Nicholson said in the article. “You wouldn’t want to hang out in these tunnels.”
Beyond the temperature, Ferguson said the tunnels are nothing out of the ordinary. He said they are well-lit and wide enough to walk through — more like the sidewalk of a trench than a concrete tunnel.
“Most of them are walkable, so it’s not dark and dingy,” Ferguson said. “There’s lighting in there. There’s markers on the wall that tells you how many feet to the next opening. And so it’s actually just like walking on top of them.”
Ferguson said the tunnels are not anything mysterious. He said all of the stories about the tunnels being haunted or being completely abandoned are just myths.
“[They are] not haunted or anything,” Ferguson said. “All of them are just normal utilities. … It is a very active, useful tunnel today.”
