A college campus is supposed to be a place where students can lose themselves in thought, ensconced in an academic bubble as they stroll to and from class. But at New Jersey's Montclair State University, those reveries were threatened with disruption starting last summer by a $92-million project to upgrade an aging power and thermal plant that involved digging a large and deep trench through the heart of the campus.
The trench, which will carry steam and water pipes, measures 15 ft across and up to 20 ft deep in places. It snakes past the school's Spanish Mission architecture in a 1.7-mile loop.