On Campus

Underground tunnels an often-unseen side of MSU

Posted: Feb 7, 2013 5:12 PM by Ben Trotter
Updated: Feb 8, 2013 9:09 AM

BOZEMAN - Montana State University Bozeman adds more students and buildings every year, but they spend less and less on heating and utilities costs, and there's one thing that's played a major role in that- the network of tunnels running below MSU's campus.

While not well known, the tunnels form a pivotal part of MSU.

"The tunnel provides us just that backbone," says Jeff Butler, Director of Facilities. "That easy conduit to be able to get utilities to places."

Not just some of the utilities, everything from compressed air, to the steam used for heating is piped through them.

The tunnels were built in four phases, the first completed in 1995, the fourth in 2002. Final price tag was $20 million. However, Butler says they were sorely needed.

"These steam lines were in such bad shape, that in some cases when we went to remove the lines after the new lines were in, they were gone...they were just holes through clay."

MSU plans on building several new state of the art geo-thermal energy plants across campus in the next several years. We hope to bring you updates on those projects as we learn more.