The large hole in the Brickyard next to Harrelson Hall that appears to be leaking steam is not a safety concern for students in their daily commute, according to maintenance officials.

Maintenance officials report the construction is standard pipe work and it poses no danger to the campus community.

Glenn Sorrell, of University Building Maintenance and Operations, said it is a simple process and the company that has been contracted has experienced no major problems.

“There were some steam lines that were looking real bad and they are replacing them,” Sorrell said.

Sorrell said the job is well underway and should be finished within the next few days.

“They have all the pipes in place and it shouldn’t take much longer,” Sorrell said. “They should be finished by this weekend.”

Tiffany Wong, a sophomore in biological sciences, said the steam rising out of the work site has been a bit unsettling and said she has been perplexed as to what was going on.

“It’s sort of weird walking past this big hole with steam coming up out of it every day,” Wong said.

Wong said although she has been concerned, she understands the University must perform maintenance where it is needed.

“Since it’s blocked off properly, I don’t think it’s really dangerous — I mean they can’t really choose a better location,” Wong said

Matthew Shepard, a senior in biological sciences, said the construction is an inconvenience for those who use the Free Expression Tunnel, but he hasn’t been overly worried about the steam rising from the exposed pipes.

“I walked by there before and it was full of water and there was steam coming out, but I assumed the workers had it under control,” Shepard said.

Lindley Dahners, a freshman in First Year College, said the construction has been easy to avoid and it hasn’t caused her any problems.

“It’s not much of an inconvenience,” Dahners said. “It’s easy to just walk around the construction.”

Dahners said the hole dug in the construction process is no danger to the public and there is no danger of anyone getting injured in this area.

“It is well roped off from the public,” Dahners said. “You’d have to be stupid to fall into that.”

Billy Yap, a junior in mathematics, said the construction hasn’t been too inconvenient and anything that is meant to improve the University is a good thing.

“It’s just regular construction like they have been doing all around campus,” Yap said. “As long as they are making the University better it doesn’t bother me.”