Pedestrian traffic to be rerouted at Morris Library

Officials plan to reroute some pedestrian traffic near Morris Library Thursday and Friday (April 5-6) as they reconfigure water discharge piping.

Heavy rains Tuesday afternoon overwhelmed temporary water pumps in the library's basement, leading to some flooding. Workers will start laying new discharge piping from the south side of the library Thursday morning, making it necessary to close the west half of the covered walkway on the library's south side for up to 48 hours.

Students, faculty and staff will still be able to access the library at the south entrance, the only public exterior entrance available at Morris Library as it undergoes its three-year, $48 million renovation. To do so, patrons must enter the covered walkway from the east side near Faner Hall, said David H. Carlson, dean of library affairs.

The library entrance will not be accessible from the west side of the covered walkway.

The covered walkway essentially will be closed to through-traffic Thursday and Friday. Students who normally use the covered walkway to get from one side of campus to the other will have two detour options:

• Walk around the chain link fence on the north (front) side of Morris Library.
• Walk on the paths through Thompson Woods between the Agriculture Building on the west side and the Student Center on the east side.

To control rainwater discharge during the start of the project, workers directed the water from the library roofs through a 10-inch pipe to an empty elevator shaft bottom in the basement of the library. From there, sump pumps pushed the water out of the building into a storm water sewer outside the building.

More than 1 1/2 inches of rain fell in the Carbondale area Tuesday afternoon, with most of it coming in just one hour. The downspouts handle the runoff from more than an acre of area and the sump pumps simply could not keep pace with that deluge, Carlson said. About an inch of water pooled on the basement floor before the pumps caught up.

Carlson said a very small number of books stored in the basement sustained slight water damage. Thankfully, the water stopped short of reaching the bottom shelves, where thousands of books are stored. Carlson shuddered at what that would have meant.

"I can't even think about that," Carlson said.

In the operations planned for Thursday and Friday, workers will redirect the roof water to another 10-inch pipe that discharges from the south of the library basement. Once the pipe exits the library basement, it will travel underground, eventually intersecting with the covered walkway sidewalk. Workers on Thursday must cut open the sidewalk to place the discharge pipe beneath it, necessitating closing the walkway during that time.

The new discharge method, previously designed as the permanent means of discharging the storm water from the library, relies strictly on gravity and does not require pumps, making it more efficient and preventing flooding in the future.

Workers initially scheduled changing over to this permanent system for the period of time between the end of spring semester and the start of summer classes on the SIUC campus. Carlson said that was done with an eye toward avoiding inconvenience to students and employees who use the covered walkway.

"There is a significant decrease in foot traffic on campus during that time," he said.

Carlson said the project contractor, River City Construction, is making the work a high priority.

"The contractor is expediting this work, and we are very appreciative of their efforts," Carlson said. "Our aim is to have as little inconvenience as possible for our patrons during this time."

- Tim Crosby