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UPDATE Feb. 26 - 8:00 a.m. -
Power restored to all Fresno State buildings
The lights
are back on in all four buildings at California State University, Fresno
that were darkened by a power shortage Sunday.
Fresno State crews restored power about 2:45 a.m. today to the Smittcamp
Alumni House and the Satellite Student Union. Power had been restored
Tuesday to the Kremen Education Building and the Madden Library.
Robert Boyd, associate vice president for Facilities Management, said
the failures were related to aging equipment. He had anticipated it
would take several more days to finish the repairs because the
hard-to-find parts had to be shipped to Fresno.
But an offer of assistance from Al Galvez, manager of Pacific Gas &
Electric Co., speeded things up. PG&E had the part and specialized
transformer oil that Fresno State ordered and was waiting for, and
provided them to the university. When Fresno State receives those
materials, it will send them to PG&E.
“We wanted to help because we knew the impact on the campus of losing
power to those buildings,” said Galvez. “We were happy to help.”
Three separate electrical problems caused the power outage that struck
the four buildings on Sunday. Fresno State Facilities Management crews
found defects in two high-voltage cables and a broken high-voltage
“boot” connection where two cables come together.
“Our cabling is 35 to 40 years old in many areas of the campus,” said
Boyd. “With age, stress and fatigue, it breaks down. Everything has a
finite life.”
Fresno State has requested state funding each of the past last five
years for a campuswide infrastructure upgrade project to address such
issues. The requests have not been granted.
UPDATE Feb. 24 - 4:40 a.m. -
Power restored to Madden Library and
Kremen Education Building; classes resume
Power has been restored to the Madden Library Kremen Education Building
and classes will be held as usual today (Tuesday).
Two other
buildings, however, still do not have power and are expected to remain
closed for the rest of this week. The closed buildings are Smittcamp
Alumni House and Satellite Student Union.
Facilities Management crews estimate power
will be restored to the remaining two buildings by the end of the week.
UPDATE Feb. 23 - 3:40 p.m.
Facilities Management crews at California State University, Fresno are
continuing their efforts to identify the source of the problem that
resulted in a power outage affecting four buildings – Kremen Education,
Madden Library, Smittcamp Alumni House and Satellite Student Union.
To enable their work, power will be turned off for several hours late
tonight to all central campus buildings – except those on PG&E power,
which includes the Residence Halls, Save Mart Center, Bulldog Diamond,
Beiden Field and Bulldog Stadium.
If preliminary efforts are successful, power will be restored to Kremen
Education by 5 a.m. Tuesday. However, the other three buildings are
expected to remain closed the entire week. Library services will be
offered in University Center Room 123.
A status update will be available at 5 a.m. Tuesday. Faculty, staff and
students who work or have classes in Kremen Education are urged to check
their e-mail or my.csufresno.edu accounts, FresnoStateNews.com or call
559.278.4000.
Feb.
23 - 6:34
a.m.
A power failure that began at
5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, has closed four buildings at Fresno State: the
new north wing of the Madden Library, the Kremen Education Building,
Smittcamp Alumni House and Satellite Student Union.
The source of the problem was being sought today and there was no
prediction when the buildings would reopen.
About 75 classes in the Kremen Building were canceled today and tonight,
affecting about 2,100 students.
To minimize disruption for students, library services were being
conducted through alternate locations as they had been before the new
wing reopened last week.
Updates on the outage will be available on FresnoStateNews.com and
through campus e-mail.
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