Stony Brook alerted campus emergency because of a water pipe leak that occurred in Kelly Quad last Thursday.

An area of Circle Road close to Kelly Quad was blocked off for repair purposes for about 48 hours: from last Thursday afternoon till midday on Saturday.

“There was a steam leak, and it should be fixed soon,” said Assistant Chief of Police Douglas Little, “there are no hazards from the leak except for traffic control.”

The repairs prevented people from traveling on Circle Road between Kelly Quad and the intersection between Kelly and the SAC loop.

“There were a lot of police cars directing traffic,” said junior Zachary Kurtz, “people were going the wrong way. I really didn’t know what was going on. Because of all the other cars in line going out the same way, it took me a half hour to get off campus.”

Terrence Harrigan, director of facilities and services, handled the emergency by working with contractors in fixing the problem. The pipes were found to be worn out, causing hot water to leak into the ground.

“They’re 40 year old pipes and were rusted from old age,” said Steve Barker, one of the workers. “It happens all the time. The hard part is trying to find [the site of the leak],” he continued. “Once you find it, you cut the pipe apart and put a new pipe in.”

The heat was temporarily shut off at one point.

“Because the heat will be shut off, [we’re] in such a rush to get the job done,” said Barker, ” We hope to have it done by this weekend because it has to be ready for school.”

The water leak was fixed by Saturday afternoon, and traffic returned to normal.

“It was nothing special,” said Barker, “just doing some repairs before school opens.”