Categories: Subterranea | Climbing | Academia | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Roof and tunnel hacking

Roof and Tunnel Hacking is the unauthorized (generally prohibited and often outright illegal) entry into and exploration of roof and utility tunnel spaces. The term carries a strong collegiate connotation, stemming from its use at MIT, where the practice has a long history (see vadding). It is a form of urban exploration. Some participants use it as a means of perpetuating collegiate pranks, by hanging banners from high places --- or, in one notable example from MIT, placing a life-size model police car on top of a university building. Others are merely interested in exploring inaccessible and seldom-seen places; that such exploration is unauthorized is often part of the thrill. Roofers, in particular, may be interested in the skyline views from the highest points on a campus.

Contents

1 Dangers

1.1 Legal dangers
1.2 Risks to university infrastructure
1.3 Personal hazards

Dangers

Roof and tunnel hacking is laden with dangers to participants. Roofers and tunnelers risk university sanctions, criminal prosecution, serious personal injury, and death. As such, the dangers section of this article is listed first.

Legal dangers

Universities generally prohibit roof and tunnel hacking, either by explicit policies (MIT, for instance, fines students who are caught on rooftops) or blanket rules against entry into mechanical rooms and utility spaces. The reasoning behind these policies generally stems from concern for university infrastructure and concern for students. Consequences vary from university to university; those caught may be warned, fined, officially reprimanded, suspended, or expelled. Depending on the circumstances, tunnelers and roofers may be charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, or other criminal charges.

Risks to university infrastructure

Utility tunnels carry everything from drinking water to power to fiber-optic network cabling; damage to those systems can be very expensive in terms of lost time and money spent on repairs. Some roofs have sensitive or fragile radio broadcast or radio reception equipment and weather-surveillance equipment, overt damage to which can be extremely costly, subtle damage to which can interfere with experiments.

Roofs and tunnels (especially tunnels) also may contain switches, valves, and other controls for utility systems that are not meant to be publicly accessible; manipulation of any of these may cause problems ranging from annoyances (an interruption of power to a dormitory room) to disasters (a catastrophic steam depressurization, a campus-wide electrical failure, a burst water main). A prudent adventurer would be well advised to leave even the most innocuous-looking switch (even one that looks like it could be a light switch) alone. An unpleasant death can occur very quickly if a tunnel explorer opens a steam valve or damages a steam pipe. Steam contains significantly more thermal energy than boiling water, and tends to dissipate that energy when it condenses on solid objects such as skin. It is typically provided under high pressure, meaning that comparatively minor pipe damage can fill a tunnel with steam quickly.

A hacker who damages a university system is unlikely to be dealt with kindly by the authorities --- even if the damage was inadvertent.

Personal hazards

Roofs are dangerous; aside from the obvious risk of toppling over the edge (especially at night, or in inclement weather) students could be injured by high-voltage cabling or by microwave radiation from broadcast equipment.

Tunnels can be extremely dangerous -- superheated steam pipes are not always completely insulated; when they are insulated, it is occasionally with carcinogenic materials like asbestos. High-voltage electrical lines, again, with potentially damaged insulation, are usually within reach --- indeed, they may dangle directly in the adventurer's path. Confined spaces contain a range of hazards -- from toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide, to structures that may flood or entrap an adventurer. An explorer who enters a tunnel via a lock bypass method or via an inadvertently-left-open door may find himself trapped if the door locks behind him -- quite possibly in an area with no cell reception, and no one within earshot. (As a corollary, hacking alone is imprudent.) Exiting a tunnel via a manhole may take one into a public walkway (where a hapless pedestrian might trip on the opening cover and fall into the manhole), or, worse, a public roadway (where a passing car may drive over the opening cover, injuring or killing the adventurer beneath.)

Roof hacking

Most buildings at universities have flat roofs. (Pitched roofs are impractical for roof hacking, for obvious reasons.) Entry points -- trapdoors, exterior ladders, and elevators to penthouses that open onto roofs --- are usually tightly secured. Roofers bypass locks (by lock picking or other methods) or simply search for unsecured entry points to gain access to roofs. Once there, explorers may take photographs or simply enjoy the view; pranksters may hang banners, plant fake police cars, or execute other sorts of mischief.

Tunnel hacking

Many large universities have a system of utility tunnels designed to carry steam (central steam heating being more efficient than installing a boiler in every building) and other utilities. Utility tunnels are usually designed for infrequent access for maintenance and the installation of new utilities, so they tend to be small and often cramped. Sometimes, utilities are routed through much larger pedestrian access tunnels (MIT has a number of such tunnels, reducing the need for large networks of steam tunnels; for this reason, there is only one traditional steam tunnel at MIT, built before many buildings were connected). Newer buildings may not have tunnel access (some web sites suggest that modern pipes need less maintenance, reducing the need for expensive access tunnels).

Tunnels range from cold, damp, and muddy to unbearably hot (especially during cold weather). Some are large enough to allow even a person to walk freely; others are low-ceilinged, forcing explorers to stoop, bend their knees, or even crawl. Even large tunnels may have points where criscrossing pipes force an explorer to crawl under or climb over a pipe -- a highly dangerous activity, when the pipe contains scalding high-pressure steam (and may not be particularly well-insulated, or may have weakened over the years since installation). Tunnels also tend to be loud -- pipes clank, machinery whirs and hums. The background noise may prevent an explorer from hearing another person in the tunnel --- who might be a benign fellow explorer, an irate police officer, or a violent underground dweller (this is more of a risk in urban areas, where underground spaces may be used as labs by drug dealers or as makeshift dwellings by the homeless). Tunnels may be well-lit or pitch-dark -- and the same tunnel may have sections of both. A tunneler whose light fails in a dark area is in a particularly bad spot.

Tunnel access points tend to be in (locked) mechanical rooms (where steam pipes and other utilities enter a building) and through manholes. As with roofs, would-be explorers bypass locks (or simply look for unlocked doors) to enter mechanical rooms and the connected tunnels. Some adventurers may open manholes from above (with crowbars or specialized manhole-opening hooks) --- a practice with significant risk to the passerby (who may fall down an improperly-closed manhole) and the tunneler (who may drop a cover on his foot, fall into a deep manhole, particularly one with toxic gases present, or find himself an easy target for police whilst lifting a hundred-pound-or-more metal cover).

Some diligent tunnelers may make maps of their campuses; an Internet search will turn up a handful of these.

Shafting

Older buildings, and sometimes newer buildings, have maintenance shafts designed to carry pipes and ducts, among other equipment, between floors. These are often accessible from the outside due to the need for maintenance. Other times, the destination of the pipes at the top or bottom presents a point of access.

The practice of climbing these shafts, using the equipment and structural components to support one's weight, is known as shafting. Hackers often pride themselves on what shafts they have climbed, and how quickly they can climb shafts. The practice is similar to buildering, which is done on the outsides of buildings.

Regular use of a shaft can wear down insulation and cause other problems. To fix these problems, hackers sometimes take special trips into the shafts to correct any problems with duct tape or other equipment.

An extremely dangerous variant of shafting involves entering elevator shafts , either to ride on the outside of the elevators, or to explore the shaft itself. This activity is sometimes called elevator surfing.