An underground pipe leak near Hope and the mammoth excavation site Thursday night resulted in loss of hot water and air heating to many lower campus buildings.

Facilities Services shut off the campus’s hot water loop while trying to discover the source of the leak, resulting in limited hot water and heating throughout the campus, said Beverly Cain, spokeswoman for Facilities Services. By Friday morning, however, the source had been isolated, and only lower campus remained affected.

Repair crews brought on campus this morning have worked throughout the day, using heavy digging machinery to reach the leaking pipe. The suspect pipe is about five to six feet underground, said Brian Phillips, senior director of Facilities Services.

The problem remains specifically undiagnosed, but Phillips said it likely resulted from a “failed connection” near a “t” in the piping system. It’s unlikely that the rainstorms caused the problem, he said.

Campus traffic is being diverted around the repair crew’s worksite, which is near the two-way stop by the mammoth excavation site.