Construction is scheduled to begin Monday to repair a pipe that provides heat to Hibbard Hall, which means that a two-foot deep trench will be dug on the north side of Garfield Avenue from the footbridge to Hibbard.

The building most affected by the work will be the Ecumenical Religious Center, located in the middle of the construction on land not owned by the university

An entrance will be maintained, but the process will be very inconvenient, said Rev. George Szews, priest of Newman Parish.

The driveway and sidewalk will be restored as part of the project.

Weddings are scheduled for every weekend in October, which makes the timing especially bad, he said.

The construction must take place before the weather gets cold to avoid a loss of heat to Hibbard, said Vice Chancellor Andrew Soll.

Steps have been taken to make the construction as convenient as possible, Soll said.

Excavated soil will be removed from the property of the ERC and no trees will be removed, he said.

“We’re not looking at the kind of access problems we had last year,” Soll said.

The leak in the pipe was discovered last winter, Soll said. The pipe carries steam to Hibbard to heat the building, and the water left from the condensed steam is transported back to the heating plant on upper campus.

The leak interrupted this process, he said.

“The system was no longer a closed loop,” Soll said.

Another concern was that chemicals from the pipe could end up polluting the Chippewa River. No discharge has entered the river yet, but it was necessary to make the repair before the situation worsened, Soll said.

This project will not be as comprehensive as last semester’s construction, Soll said.

“It should not affect the entrances to Hibbard,” he said.

The university was allocated $128,000 by the State Building Commission for the project. which is expected to be completed Nov. 1.