UW-Superior’s Flood Recovery Will Continue Into Summer

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Flood damage from last summer is going to mean the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Superior campus will be torn up again this summer.

The campus looks normal. Classes are going on in their usual places. There are not any barriers or cordoned-off areas at UW-Superior.

But do not ask Chancellor Renee Wachter if repairs are just about finished from last June’s mega-flood: “There is a joke in there somewhere but I can’t think of what the punch line is, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

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In fact, even though they have completed a lot of outward repairs, such as grading, walls, and carpeting, Wachter says they are still assessing damage below the ground. She says they suspect building foundations have cracked and shifted this winter.

“The insidious thing is that much of what remains are the infrastructure issues. So, we said last summer that we were doing ‘the big dig’ because we had so much of the campus torn up trying to replace the insulation on the steam pipes. There will be a next phase to that starting again this summer.”

And that could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars more to fix.

“They don’t know if it was something else, if it was directly because of all the water that caused the found to shift; so that part is still under analysis.”

About 10 inches of rain fell on Superior on June 20. Estimated damage to the UW-Superior campus was $23.5 million.