Various stages of digging up and modifying the West Ridge Mall took place over the summer as the new utilidors were installed.
The semi off-limits conference room of the IARC buidling is a great viewpoint for this area.

A large amount of construction is taking place in the West Ridge area over 2003-2004, including the addition of two new buildings (along with the permanent elimination of half the available parking, stoned planners strike again), renovations and additions to several buildings, and a brand new tunnel to connect the area to the Natural Science building and supplement the utility capacity of the existing tunnel up from the SRC. This tunnel, once finished, will complete a loop around campus and create a multi-level crossover network of deep and shallow tunnels between O'niell and AHRC.

My crappy drawing of the crossover spiral thingy, I'll do a better job someday when I have a CAD program.
The green parts are shafts or side tunnels up to buildings The blue tunnel is about 10 feet below surface, and the red is about 40 feet down (at the bottom).

The new research building has really gone up fast, now that the shell is up the interior can be completed over the winter.

So many open hatches! It's enough to make me drool!

Progress is coming along on both the WRRB and the new tunnels, which now reach all the way to the NSCI junction.

The first photo shows the new shell of the West Ridge Research Building, the next two show the progress being made on the new tunnel, and the last two show an embarassing crane accident. Thanks to Dajur for taking these recon photos for me while I'm stuck in Anchorage!

Ever wonder what those steam tunnels look like when exposed and cut open? Now you know...
 

The clearcut and excavation areas between West Ridge and NSCI. The contractors were foolish enough to leave the keys in all the equipment...

The first exposure of part of the utilidor tunnel system. This is in front of O'niell, and is being cut open to connect to the new tunnels.
The cylindrical towers sticking out of the trench are sewer manhole shafts.

Some trenches and excavations, the first three are to be the foundation of the new West Ridge Research Building (soon to be named after some dead white guy).

The start of the new tunnel, the concrete poured for the floor. This is the cut and cover method of tunnel construction.

New opportunities for access and travel presented themselves...

No CHUDs in this sewer, just worthless small pipes.