Damage to research equipment after flooding a big challenge, College of Engineering dean says

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - After flooding to the Engineering Centers building Thursday afternoon, the College of Engineering Dean Ian Robertson says their biggest concern is damage to research equipment in the building.

“It’s home to a large amount of equipment, and it’ll take time for us to assess the damage occurred to that, whether we need to restore it or whether we need to replace it,” Robertson said.

The ECB is home to about 50 researchers across campus, according to Robertson, and one of their top priorities is making sure the researchers can continue their work.

“In the short term our goal is to get our faculty back into those labs as quickly as possible, some of them have very time sensitive experiments,” Robertson said.

Approximately 55,000 gallons of water were released on Thursday after a water pipe in the penthouse broke. It was on the upper floor, so it caused damage to all floors on the building, specifically the microfabrication facility directly below it.

Classes in ECB were cancelled on Thursday and relocated on Friday, and an updated release from the university on Friday said that all classes for next week would be relocated to other buildings.

Robertson said campus crews were very quick to respond once they received a call that there was a problem. Classes were rearranged very quickly and faculty, staff and students were notified.

“So I’m very proud of the way the university and all the faculty and staff have responded to this incident,” Robertson said.

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