12 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WWW.KANSAN.COM
News
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 2008
ROUTES (CONTINUED FROM 11)
received $8.9 million for the repairs. The project began this summer and will continue until 2010.
Jess said the construction zones created two major road closures until Aug. 11. Mississippi Street is closed from Memorial Drive to Jayhawk Boulevard and Jayhawk Boulevard is closed between Mississippi Street and Lilac Lane. KU buses detour
down Memorial Drive because of the closure.
"Jayhawk Boulevard is the heart of campus and the main artery for campus," Jess said. "But this is also vital work that has to be done, so we tried to do it in summer when there are fewer people around."
Danny Kaiser, assistant director of Parking and Transit, said parking was not available on the north side of Memorial Drive. He said this should not create much inconvenience because it took away fewer than 20 spots.
Jim Modig, director of design and construction management, said the project had been one of the University's top maintenance priorities because many of the tunnels
were old and deteriorating structurally. He also said the tunnels did not meet current safety codes.
"We have had some minor problems down there," Modig said. "We have been very fortunate not to a have major incident."
Modig said the steam tunnels carried electricity, communication lines and steam to the campus buildings.
Many campus buildings, including the Kansas Union, Fraser Hall and the scholarship halls, rely on steam to warm water and heat the buildings. He said the buildings would not be able to heat up in winter without a proper maintenance of the pipes.
Edited by Ramsey Cox
BRIEFS
Florida offshore drilling discovers new support
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.
Not any more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981.
The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle — an area that had been covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In exchange,
the state got a no-drilling buffer along the rest of its beaches.
Florida may turn out to be a prelude for other coastal states. If oil or natural gas deposits are found in the newly opened region, experts say it could further the push to explore other once-protected areas everywhere. It also could be a rallying point for critics, who say the new exploration isn't a license to expand exploration.
With gas topping $4 a gallon, recent polls show Americans, Floridians included, more supportive of drilling in protected areas. Some politicians — including Gov. Charlie Crist — have switched sides.
Orangutan population declines at 'alarming rate'
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great
ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.
The declines in Indonesia and Malaysia since 2004 are mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, said on Saturday
The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate"but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in "rapid decline."
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Moni, a 17-year-old orangutan, carries her baby at Gembira Loka zoo in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.