Tunnels: Life Sciences-Bioinformatics
Trip Logs
This section of tunnel is extremely hot and humid as well as cramped, but really cool because it's brand new. Unlike other sections of tunnel, there is absolutely no graffiti, leading us to believe that we may be the first students to ever explore this section.
The tunnel itself has cinder block walls, not precast concrete, unlike many of the other newer sections of tunnel. It's surprisingly well lit with florescent lights.
There are two entrances and exits to this tunnel. There's a manhole in front of Life Sciences I that is labeled "Water," and it sort of is, I guess, since steam is just hot water, after all. It's pretty easy to pop open, but it's a little loud to move, so don't try it when anyone's around.
There's also a door from a storage room on the bottom floor of Bioinformatics. It's at the top of a short ladder and has space for a padlock, but the padlock was noticeably absent when we used it. I don't know if this is typical or if we just got lucky. This would probably make a better exit than an entrance, since the manhole over at Life Sciences I is kind of exposed. I'd also imagine that the door to the storage room is probably locked, too.
If you want to give the door in Bioinformatics a try, though, enter through the stairwell near the loading dock on the parking lot side of Bioinformatics. Go straight through the stairwell and you will be in an elevator lobby. Take a left and the room is the first door on your left. If you're able to get in, on your right, you will see a ladder leading up to a door to the steam tunnel. Just open it and climb down the ladder on the other side. The only problem is that you won't be able to get up to the main tunnel very easily, since there's no ladder. You can bring one in from the storage room, or just pull yourself up.
If you enter the tunnel through the manhole, after climbing down a ladder that's about eight feet high, you will find yourself in a large entry room with a much smaller tunnel running west. If you follow it, you will notice a short turn as you near Bioinformatics, and then you'll come across about an five foot drop. There's no ladder here, so you'll just have to jump down.
If you're facing the wall opposite the tunnel you just came from, you will notice a ladder on your right side. It leads up to a door into the storage room inside Bioinformatics that I mentioned earlier.