Greetings to all,
Last summer, the Physical Plant discovered an underground water leak that forced the water to be turned off for the entire campus so that repairs could be made. This unplanned water outage was a great inconvenience to everyone on campus. In order to prevent such a widespread water outage again, a project has been developed to install isolation valves in the water distribution system. This will enable us to turn the water off to only a part of the campus should we ever have another leak in the underground water lines. Unfortunately, in order to install these isolation valves, the water to most of the campus must be turned off.
In planning the accomplishment of this project, the weekend of May 26-27 (Memorial Day weekend) is being considered as the time that poses the least adverse impact for the campus. The buildings directly affected by this water outage are: Carlton, Whitley, Alamance, Duke, Powell, Mooney, Sloan, Virginia, West, HBB, Long, Smith, Carolina, McEwen Communications and McEwen Dining Hall. For Powell building, in addition to the water being turned off, the air conditioning will also be off as there will be no water for the cooling tower to operate. Air conditioning in the other buildings will not be affected since they are air-cooled systems.
The focus of the water outage will be the installation of the isolation valves. At the same time, a major valve distribution pit will also undergo some extensive rehabilitation. It is expected that all of this work can be accomplished in an outage of a single day (Saturday). Should unforeseen conditions be encountered during the work, the outage might extend into the next day (Sunday). In any event, we will endeavor to have water service restored as soon as possible.
In the event you are in any of the affected buildings on this weekend, is requested that you avoid flushing or attempting to run any water until the water service is restored. This will speed the recovery time as well as keep from stirring up any sediment that may be in the lines.
Lacking any strong objections, we plan on finalizing this planned water outage with the Town of Elon and the contractor next Thursday, May 10. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact me before then at x5503. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.