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Cassell to the Power Plant
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After
climbing down the entrance by the Cassell Coliseum, you find yourself in a
little room with plenty of cool graffiti on the walls. From here, there's a
short zigzag of 90 degree turns, ending where the buried steam pipe forks off
towards Dietrick, and an inaccessible section of tunnel heads down Washington
Street towards McComas and Litton Reaves.
Turning right here, it's more or less straight to Miles and Barringer, with no stairs or anything. There are sub-tunnels to Pritchard and Lee on the left, but it's a tight squeeze under some pipes to get in them. The whole stretch between Cassell and Miles is cramped (the tunnel's only about 5 feet tall) and pretty damn hot. The tunnel makes a left turn behind Miles, then there's a ladder to a surface grate on the right, followed by a sub-tunnel to Miles' mechanical room on the left. Soon after this, there's a hole in the ceiling into a sub-tunnel to Barringer (pretty cool), and a sub-tunnel on the left to the crawlspace under Newman. A short ways after this, there's a high-pressure steam discharge in the middle of the tunnel - it goes off explosively, at intervals from 10 to 40 seconds. After this, there's a long stretch that can be kinda wet (like nasty 4" deep water), with a short set of stairs halfway through, and a big pump thing that must be climbed around. The wet section ends near Eggleston, where there's a ladder up to a pretty cool section - the tunnel makes a really sharp right turn, followed by a couple left turns and up a flight of stairs. There are a couple of sub-tunnels running off to the left at the top of the ladder too. The tunnel gets to be around 8' x 6', but there are pipes along one wall and a large low-pressure steam pipe in the middle of the floor, so it's still kinda cramped. Soon after the top of the stairs there's a big mess of valves and stuff, where a sub-tunnel forks off towards the library and beyond. The sub-tunnel is a tight squeeze, but it's doable. After about 50 feet, it opens up from a crawl to a crouch. Soon after, there's a mess of pipes, and a right turn, ending in a wall and a small (locked) door to the Library. Back in the main tunnel, immediately after the library sub-tunnel, there's a sub-tunnel on the left side heading to the War Memorial Chapel (and a decent exit). The main tunnel continues on, heading uphill. By McBryde there's a side tunnel, going towards the Agnew-Cowgill run. The side tunnel is very difficult to get in to, but it soon opens up and becomes somewhat passable. There are three accessible sub-tunnels on the right side of the tunnel; two going to Randolph and one to Hancock. The side tunnel becomes inaccessible near Burruss, as it turns down and the large low pressure steam (LPS) pipe blocks the way. In the side tunnel, and from here on in the main tunnel, the LPS pipe is huge (because it's carrying the steam for most of campus). Back in the main tunnel, there's a right turn before the tunnel heads along Turner Street to the power plant. At the power plant, the tunnel makes a left turn, and ends in a pair of grates with the power plant visible on the other side.
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