KNOXVILLE — University of Tennessee Facilities Services personnel are working with additional engineering consultants and using new testing mechanisms to restore power to the west side of campus, which caused the closure of the Andy Holt Apartment Residence Hall Monday.
Power is still out at the Apartment Residence Hall, the Student Aquatic Center, Tennessee Recreation Center for Students (T-RECS), offices for Facilities Services and the Volunteer Boulevard Parking Garage. Both T-RECS and the Student Aquatic Center are closed.
UT officials will make a decision by mid-afternoon about alternative housing arrangements for the Apartment Residence Hall students.
Approximately 130 students spent the night at Thompson-Boling Assembly Center and Arena due to closure of the residence hall. Approximately 1,000 students occupy the residence hall. Student affairs personnel said that most students made other arrangements for Monday evening.
Facilities Services personnel worked until 4 a.m. today testing various possibilities related to the outage that occurred on a university-maintained circuit. Along with testing underground cable lines, personnel replaced switches and fuses related to the circuitry.
Consultants joined the team early this morning to further investigate issues related to the power failure.
All Facilities Services employees are continuing to work from their offices through the use of generators. All available personnel are working to address some aspect of the outage, said Mike Sherrell, executive director of Facilities Services.
—
Contact:
Karen Collins (865-974-5186 or 865-216-6862)
Beth Gladden (865-974-9008 or 865-771-1284)
###