When Facilities Management finishes installing new chilled water lines in the Cambridge Community next month, it will make one small dent in its work to address the university’s “Invisible Crisis.”

That’s what the university dubbed a document that tracks pipe breaks, a relatively common phenomenon considering the age of the campus and its infrastructure. Water lines are responsible for the area’s frequent water outages, including those that impacted North Hill dorms April 4, said Jack Baker, Facilities Management operations and maintenance director.

“Most of the things that we’re dealing with are either underground or behind the walls in our buildings,” Baker said. “Over time, we build new buildings, and we renovate buildings, but replacing the infrastructure that’s underground is not as visible, is not as easy to identify and define the requirements. But that’s our job.”

However, replacing any one section of pipes isn’t likely to solve the problem, much to the frustration of students who are inconvenienced when breaks cause their faucets and showers to run dry.

“The issue of an aging infrastructure is not a new one, but it’s one that certainly concerns facilities folks around the world, literally,” Baker said. “It’s not just a University of Maryland problem. It’s not a state of Maryland problem. It’s literally a worldwide problem.”

It’s especially problematic when the ground shifts due to a change in weather, as additional stresses and strains are added to pipes, causing them to break, Baker said.

“You can almost guarantee water main breaks throughout the year, but they seem to be more prevalent as we move to winter and then as we move to spring as the ground thaws out,” he said.

Some of this work occurred over the summer, when Facilities Management installed new pipes in a $1.9 million water line project. That project replaced 70-year-old pipes running from Fraternity Row along Chapel Drive and toward Morrill Hall.

Facilities Management decides how to approach updating the campus’ infrastructure using several factors, including a tracking system that helps them choose what needs to be renovated and when, Baker said.

“Basically what we try to do is monitor where we have pipe failures and pipes that are particularly old,” said Carlo Colella, Facilities Management associate vice president.

That was one of the main determinants in the decision for the $1.9 million project this past summer. Prior to the improvements, that water line experienced about six breaks over the past several years, Baker said.

Another significant factor is when a piping system interferes with a new project on the campus. Such was the case with water lines near the $128.7 million Physical Sciences Complex.

An old pipe will be replaced nearby because it impacted the new building, which is slated to open in the fall.

The oldest pipes on the campus are under the south side of McKeldin Mall, near the Armory and Rossborough Inn. Most of the systems were installed around World War II, and some of the water lines date back to the 1930s, Baker said.

“Pretty much you can bet where you’ve got an old building, the infrastructure that supports it is probably old as well,” he said.

However, this is not just an issue at this university. Teddy Elonis, the water distribution supervising engineer at Rutgers, said the pipes on Rutgers’ campus are World War II-era as well.

“A lot of the breaks are due to improper installation,” he said.

Despite the pressing needs of facilities on the campus, the funds do not exist to combat all the problems at once, officials said.

“Cost is always a concern,” said Baker. “We can literally spend millions of dollars to replace underground lines, and that cost varies depending on how deep the line it is, how many other utilities are around it.”

Replacing pipes on the campus must also compete for money in the facilities renewal fund with other projects, such as replacing roofs, fixing pavement and repairing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

“We spend a lot of time and we agonize over where to apply our limited resources because there’s a tremendous need out there and a limited source of funds,” Baker said.

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