[HN Gopher] UWaterloo Steam Tunnels (2016)
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       UWaterloo Steam Tunnels (2016)
        
       Author : luu
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2022-12-16 21:58 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hashman.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hashman.ca)
        
       | liketochill wrote:
       | Carleton university in Ottawa has a network of tunnels linking
       | different buildings on campus as well. You can go from res to
       | classes without going outside when it is -20.
        
         | mabbo wrote:
         | Those tunnels were one of my favorite parts of being there. I
         | lived in residence during my fourth year and once went three
         | weeks without setting foot outside. January is not a nice time
         | in Ottawa.
        
       | systems_glitch wrote:
       | Virginia Tech has such a system as well. Linked pictures are much
       | nicer than any of us managed :P
        
         | greggarious wrote:
         | Pitt has a couple too, but we keep things offline :-)
        
       | jsnk wrote:
       | I think the link title would be more helpful to mention
       | "University of Waterloo"
        
       | apetresc wrote:
       | During orientation in my freshman year, we were told (off the
       | record, by some seniors) the steam tunnels have been permanently
       | closed for years, despite the huge convenience they used to
       | provide by connecting far-away buildings underground in the
       | winter when it gets extremely cold, because an alarming number of
       | rapes/sexual assaults had happened down there.
       | 
       | Never really verified whether that was true. I wonder how this
       | photographer was able to get down there.
        
         | mrshadowgoose wrote:
         | This is a common urban legend present at any university with
         | these types of utility tunnels.
         | 
         | Due to various physical hazards, these tunnels are just not the
         | safest to be in as an untrained individual, and were never open
         | to the public.
        
         | mabbo wrote:
         | They should look at Carleton University in Ottawa as an
         | example.
         | 
         | Big, wide, brightly lit tunnels with cameras on every square
         | inch. No more dangerous than any other part of campus. Entirely
         | open to everyone and often the fastest way to get around.
        
         | unicornmama wrote:
         | Some students were interested in lock picking.
        
       | 908B64B197 wrote:
       | My understanding was in Montreal, if you include the subway, you
       | can get to and from buildings of 4 different universities without
       | ever going outside.
       | 
       | I guess that's also true in Boston.
        
       | AlbertCory wrote:
       | U. of Illinois (Urbana) had steam tunnels when I was there. You
       | could tell where they were, because the snow on the ground above
       | them was melted.
        
       | runnerup wrote:
       | During high school I explored the steam tunnels under my hometown
       | university and for my moxie I received an indefinite ban from
       | "all property owned, leased, or controlled by the University of
       | _____" and 6 months of probation.
       | 
       | Post 9/11 these are really quite locked down. Back around 2006 it
       | was mostly IR motion sensors so you could army-crawl under a 300
       | degree steam pipe and become invisible, as long as you were
       | careful not to burn your back. Now with cameras and AI motion
       | detection I'm not sure there's a way to explore these for long
       | and remain undetected.
        
       | xattt wrote:
       | Of all places, Charlottetown, PEI in Canada has a district system
       | fueled by a garbage incinerator that provides heat and cooling
       | capacity to the hospital, university and a number of buildings
       | downtown.
        
       | pie_R_sqrd wrote:
       | I'm a student at Johns Hopkins, and we have a fairly extensive
       | steam/maintenance tunnel network. I've been down about 15 times
       | this semester (although more focused on climbing buildings as of
       | late), and hauled quite a few other students with. Burnt my arm
       | pretty bad once, and got caught once but just played stupid and
       | they let me walk. Plenty of evidence from past generations; seems
       | to me like they were pretty popular in the 70s... who could've
       | guessed.
       | 
       | You can find some of the pics here:
       | https://www.instagram.com/jhu_liminal_spaces/?hl=en
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | aurizon wrote:
       | University of Toronto has a huge network of these, however after
       | a series of tunnel exploration exploits they pretty much created
       | a gated access system.
       | 
       | http://www.infiltration.org/journal-utmain.html
        
         | Teever wrote:
         | wow, I totally forgot about infiltration.org.
         | 
         | Thanks for that blast from the past man.
        
       | buildbot wrote:
       | University of Washington (the other UW lol) has similar tunnels -
       | but we were all explicitly told it was instant expulsion to go
       | there during orientation. IDK how true that threat really was.
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | http://web.archive.org/web/20221216220038/https://hashman.ca...
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-17 23:00 UTC)