As any Oswego resident knows a warm winter day results in melting snow and ultimately the formation of “problem” puddles. I have to say there are a lot of problem puddles on the Oswego campus. Case in point, the Funnelle resident parking lot…there’s quite a few potholes in that blacktop! They are unforgiving to automobile shocks and, when filled with water, to the shoes, socks, and pant legs of unsuspecting, casually cruising students’. Obviously, potholes happen, especially in the northeast. So why am I blogging about puddles?
Well tonight my teammates and I made the trek from practice at the campus center over to late-night at Cooper and we came across a pathway puddle barrier. I’m sure anyone who eats at Coop, or lives in Funnelle and Hart, has come across this puddle on a rainy or warm winter day and knows exactly what puddle I am referring too. For those of you that are not frequent Coop customers, well the puddle covers at least a 1/3 or more of the pathway extending from the backside of Hart and Cooper (towards the campus center) on any given wet day.
From what I have seen, a few pairs of kicks have been lost to this puddle, or to the mud on the sides of the path, over the last year and a half. So I am wondering if there is anything that can be done about it since it is such a high traffic area. As my teammate Kendra Lemire suggested, maybe Oswego should consider investing in underground tunnels?
Despite the fact that underground tunnels would provide a respite from walks to class in Oswego’s winter weather I’m not sure starting a “Big Dig” around campus would be the ideal solution to the the Cooper pathway puddle problem. I’m thinking a little drainage pipe should suffice.
On a side note…I don’t think the tunnel idea should be thrown out completely. Considering the extreme snow and wind that hits our campus, especially over by the Seneca area, it might be practical to put a walking tunnel or two around campus.
I am sure engineers have fine tuned the underground tunnel-digging process since Boston!
One of our old campus legends is that there are secret underground tunnels at the college. I have yet to find any truth in that, unless they are behind rotating bookcases or some such thing.
I remember reading a very old Reader’s Digest story in which a scientist envisioned cross-country travel via pneumatic tube (like in the bank drive-thru) where travelers climbed into a capsule in LA and minutes later arrived in NYC. I reckon there would be scientific challenges in maintaining (in every way) a vacuum for thousands of miles and creating an oxygen atmosphere for the pod. But I’ve proposed such a method of travel for the campus … no one seems to back the idea.
Theres totally one connecting Mahar and Tyler, ive never been in it, but i have a number of friends who have. theres also the ones connecting the dining halls to the dorms on new campus (Seneca, Cayuga, Onieda, and ‘Daga). But i think we should totally get some more of those, especially with our winters…. sheesh!