tunnels

OK, it's kinda gross but I toured the water and sewer tunnels this morning. The pipes are about 4 inches in diameter but stuffed with insulation that makes the pipes appear a foot in diameter.

The tunnel is 40 feet below the surface and remains a constant -56F. It's kinda neat - it goes all the way from the elevated station out to summercamp. There were even snow crytals hanging from the ceiling. This is from both condensation from people's breath working in the tunnels and from the pipes. It took a few years and a couple of different contractors to dig the tunnels. The walls are packed snow - it felt like ice. There are escape ladders throughout just in case you got trapped but instead of the ladders leaning they are straight up and down or leaning backwards due to the ice shelf moving.

An interesting fact is that we are drinking really old water. It's from the age of Jesus - hey, so we're drinking Jesus water! It's 100% pure - so pure that it is filtered (for germs just in case) and chlorine and minerals are added to it because the water systems (pipes, drinking fountains, sinks, etc) cannot work with it being so pure. The fountains actually break! Amazing, eh?

There were some interesting trophies in there. I guess a few people got bored some years ago and decided to store some 'artifacts'. There was a pig and a sturgeon.






A contstant -56F.














pipe with insulation



















Water pipe on top. Sewer pipe on bottom.


































The Russian sturgeon





















The pig shrine

Hanging snow crystals

And me... my nose got really cold and my eyelashes froze.