Mud covers the floor of a housing unit at the Nebraska State Penitentiary after a water pipe burst in November, forcing the relocation of 134 inmates. The housing unit may be out of commission for as long as two years.Â
Nebraska Department of Correctional Services
The burst pipe caused flooding in the housing unit’s mechanical room, where door controls, heating and cooling systems, IT systems and a camera security system are operated.
After a water leak forced the closure of an entire housing unit at the Nebraska State Penitentiary, engineers estimate the unit could remain out of commission for as long as two years, according to the state Department of Correctional Services.
Wednesday's evacuation of the housing unit — which displaced 134 men incarcerated at the Lincoln prison, many of whom spent Wednesday night in the facility's gymnasium — was the result of a burst cast-iron pipe buried 10 to 15 feet from the exterior of the housing unit, the department said in a Friday news release.
The burst caused flooding in the housing unit’s mechanical room, where door controls, heating and cooling systems, IT systems and a camera security system are operated, according to the news release.
The water leak also carried a considerable amount of mud into the mechanical room and onto the floor of the housing unit.
“Water reached 9 feet in the mechanical room itself,â€Â Nate Bornemeier, the department's engineering administrator, said in the release. “The mud left behind is at least 2½ feet high.
"We will start cleaning that out, but, obviously, anytime you have a water intrusion, you worry about things like mold growth. There is also the likelihood of foundation issues underneath the building.â€
Bornemeier estimated the housing unit wouldn't be ready for use again for as long as two years.
That unit was slated to open in the coming weeks for a different group of maximum-security inmates — a plan that has now been upended by the water leak.
The state penitentiary campus, which entered modified operations in response to water being shut off Wednesday, was expected to resume normal operations later Friday, according to the department.
Portable toilets were brought in and staff distributed bottled water to inmates, according to the department. Visits to the prison, which were postponed in response to the water leak, will resume Monday.
An engineering study released in January found that the penitentiary would need $220 million in repairs and replacements to match a new, “modern version of the same quantity and/or size of what exists.â€
Scott Frakes, the former director of correctional services who resigned in October following a seven-year run at the agency, had repeatedly pointed to the decrepit state of the facility as he implored state leaders and lawmakers to build a new, $270 million prison.
In an exit interview with the Nebraska Examiner in the days before his retirement, Frakes predicated the penitentiary's water pipes, in particular, would become too large a problem to ignore.
"We had the broken water pipes a year ago (at the State Pen)," he told the Examiner. "I won’t be surprised if it happens again."
Mud covers the floor of a housing unit at the Nebraska State Penitentiary after a water pipe burst in November, forcing the relocation of 134 inmates. The housing unit may be out of commission for as long as two years.Â
A portion of the aging cast-iron pipe that burst at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on Wednesday, forcing the relocating of nearly 140 inmates to a newly built housing unit at the Reception and Treatment Center in west Lincoln.Â
The burst pipe caused flooding in the housing unit’s mechanical room, where door controls, heating and cooling systems, IT systems and a camera security system are operated.