Construction began in the spring of 1996. We had to do some interesting tricks of connecting new systems to the old, without a major interruption of service. It has involved routing a lot of temporary systems, and temporary piping. It's akin to converting a horse and buggy into a race car while you are driving it to town. The people who will be most affected by the conversion are the plant operators.
Extensive training is already underway.
With forward-thinking attention to the campus' needs, the conversion is taking place just in time. In the last several years, people noticed that the buildings at the end of the steam line, like Davis Gym, could not be heated to desired levels during severe weather. Though rare, this was a concern. There's going to be a reduction in almost every pollutant that the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Protection track. Their cars will be cleaner because we're not producing ash anymore, but their rooms are not going to be any warmer or colder because of this.