Across Purdue’s campus, there are small systems of tunnels that can be used to travel between buildings during poor weather. They can be found between Stewart and Hicks, Beering and the University Street Garage, Physics, MSE, and the Grant Street Garage, the Union and a number of south campus buildings and garages, and even under segmented dorms like Cary or Windsor (although these are generally only used in the event of certain emergencies). However, there are more tunnels under our feet than just these. There exists another tunnel system – far more expansive, but also far more dangerous and closely guarded.
Purdue’s utility tunnel system spans nearly the entire campus, stretching from McCutcheon and Harrison to Rawls and Krannert, from as far south as Wade to as far north as Cary Quad, over six miles of tunnel overall. The utility tunnels are filled with – you guessed it – a good deal of Purdue’s utility systems. Whether it is wired services like electricity or data lines, or piped resources like compressed air or steam, it can be found here. Many of these tunnels are no more than crawlspaces, or are so full of wires and pipes that they couldn’t be traversed by anyone on foot, but some of the main thoroughfares are large enough than a person could walk between buildings in them (if they’re willing to duck a couple times on the way, that is).
Unfortunately, these tunnels will certainly never be opened to the public in their current state, and it would likely be far too costly and difficult to convert them into anything usable by pedestrians. More importantly, if you’ve read this and feel like going exploring down there, we strongly discourage doing so. Walking through the doors to one of these tunnels as a student is arguably the most efficient means of getting either killed or expelled. The tunnels temperature can range from being anywhere between 0 and 400°F depending on the time of year, as well as being home to all kinds of high pressure or high voltage components, and potentially the home of all manner of poisonous gas buildups. The doors are all monitored by alarms that alert PUPD immediately if they are activated. As quite possibly the most dangerous area on campus, the university treats trespassing here more seriously than anywhere else, and will be more than happy to punish trespassers accordingly.
I attended Purdue from 86-89 and was a resident at Tarkington Hall 86-87. In 87 a neighbor of ours discovered one of the maintenance doors under the center East stairwell on the bottom floor was always unlocked. Through that door was access to a maintenance electrical tunnel that had a crawl space that we could crawl through with ease. This led to a larger brick room with a locked iron door. For some reason, there were bricks that were removable next to the door, through which you could gain access to a series of main walkable electrical and heating tunnels that connected almost all campus buildings. Over a series of many weeks during that time, when we were bored on late nights, groups of us would wander down there and explore the various places that the tunnels would take us. Most of the older campus was connected, and we could come to the surface at points all the way to State Street on the South East end of campus. Being caught and chased by maintenance workers one night eventually ended our many trips. But it was a magical experience. Never found any buried treasure though.
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