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Looking at the construction camera at Vanderbilt Stadium today (Thursday morning), the field is torn up, and it is possible to see portions of a very large (sewer) pipe that has been buried for years under the field. I had heard rumors about this for years, but it appears part of it is actually exposed now. (Am I wrong? If so, please tell me what's going on there.)

P.S. Let the jokes begin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=500woGM3m2k&ab_channel=VanderbiltAthletics

This would explain a lot...

I mean- if you’ve been to the stadium, it’s not that surprising. The place smells of sewage, especially the area around the stadium near McGugin and the tennis courts. If that gets fixed in all this, all the better.

It's at least consistent with what's been on the field for a majority of my lifetime.

Waiting for VandyfanKY to weigh in. He's always the best source of info on construction and engineering around the stadium.

I was thinking it might be part of the drainage system for the field, but that's a pretty huge pipe.

Doreknox wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:34 am It's at least consistent with what's been on the field for a majority of my lifetime.

Given the size and the route it is most likely a storm sewer pipe, not a sanitary sewer. Storm sewers are almost always larger than sanitary due to the wide differences in flow (relatively stable for sanitary, but a trickle up to 100-year flood for storm). This is likely the original underground aquifer that starts near the new engineering building, wanders through the football field and ends up staying underground north of West End and turning east until it reaches the Cumberland. My guess is that the original natural aquifer was converted to an enclosed built structure sometime prior to 1922. If you look at very old USGS or Sunburn maps you can see the outline. That original aquifer caused a big change order during the construction of the engineering building.

As a child we were visiting friends who lived across from Stratford High School. They were building the football field and the kids all went over and played in the drainage pipes they were installing. There was a whole series of interconnecting pipes that was easy for 10 year olds to play in. All were covered u see the field. Doesn't surprise me that there would be pipes under the Dud.

Definitely not sanitary sewer. Sanitary sewer generally 8 - 12" dia, and the old clay sanitary sewer was rarely larger than 24", and generally 8 - 15". Storm sewer might go up to 8' diameter, so feel confident it is storm drainage.

This is the Kerrigan combined sewer pipe. It is designed to carry both storm water and sewage.
When the earliest sewers were made the creeks and branches were put into sewer pipes. Since there was no sewer treatment plants when it rained the contents were flushed into the river. It did not make much difference because the population was so small.
Lick Branch was the creek which was bricked into that pipe. It covers the Vandy area and runs through Centennial Park and between West End/Broadway and Charlotte. The pipe actually runs under the Farmers Market, Bicentennial Mall, and the area just outside the baseball park before flowing into the river.
Most of the time the sewage goes to the Central Plant for treatment in north Nashville which was built in 1958 but when it rains enough the sewage is bypassed into the Cumberland River untreated. This is called a combined sewer overflow or CSO.
The EPA has identified 883 cities and towns with combined sewers nationwide but because Tennessee was late to the sewage process only Nashville, Chattanooga, and Clarksville have combined sewers. In the 1990's the EPA began suing all the 213 cities with combined sewers and population over 50,000. The final consent decrees were finalized just a few years ago.
Metro used to have 27 CSO outlets. It now down to 6 and by the 2032 will have only 3, two of which will almost never overflow.
Lick Branch is the reason Nashville happened. It was called Lick Branch because the mineral springs attracted wildlife to try to take up the salts. Almost all of Nashville's highways were the buffalo traces beaten by the hooves of the bison going to Lick Branch north of downtown. The old Sulphur Dell baseball park in north Nashville was named for the mineral well.
You can see the sewer pipe in the southeast section of Centennial Park as the large earthern hump. For years Cockrill Spring along West End across from Wendys was piped into the sewer until daylighted about ten years ago. The water flows a short way and then is piped to Lake Watauga east of the Parthenon.

Love this. This is what makes VM different.
Somehow, I doubt infrastructure is ever discussed on Bama boards.

ADDED Friday morning:

Was watching the construction cam briefly just now and most of the work at the site at that moment is at the pipe. It appeared they were probing the pipe in some way. These screenshots show how large the pipe is, compared to the guys around it. Makes sense that this is the enclosed creek or stream mentioned above.

FayetteDore wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 11:01 pm Love this. This is what makes VM different.
Somehow, I doubt infrastructure is ever discussed on Bama boards.

Completely! I find this conversation so fascinating and I am very appreciative of the contributions of so many knowledgeable members of the board. I'm engaged in a project now that involves an athletic field and extensive stormwater management underneath the field so this is particularly timely for me.

Until I read Vandytoad’s description of the sewer I thought it might be an extension of the steam tunnels under the campus.

They were far below ground level at first but branches emerged at points where the elevation was lower. I believe you will find a door at the end of a classroom on the lower level of Calhoun Hall that goes into one of the spokes.

Once inside, it was easy to note the spoke heading to Branscomb Quad (women’s dorm in the ‘70s) because it had a gate with a huge chain and lock.

When they built Sarratt Commons there was a door in the wing by the Versus and WRVU offices that opened to a 2-story flight of stairs that led down to the tunnels.

Fascinating. Chattanooga has some serious problems because of the combined Storm-sanitary sewer systems built in the past. I know of some pretty funny things that surfaced in litigation back in the early 80's related to some construction of "sewers" back then as well as an expansion of the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment plant.

My knowledge is inferior to others on this board, but I will tell you that there are other creeks in the heart of Nashville that were buried in massive underground pipes.

The most important one probably lies under Lower Broadway. There was a creek there which is mentioned many times in early, early Nashville history. The Creek Indians hid behind it on the famous "Battle of the Bluffs." The creek is mentioned many times in Paul Clement's book Chronicles of the Cumberland Settlements, and it's gone now... so somewhere along the way they buried it in a very large pipe like this one, I suppose.

I have no idea what the pipe is called and when it was engineered, however.

The aforementioned Lick Branch and its small tributaries in the area where Dudley Field would be constructed:
I zoomed in on this part but closer to the Cumberland, the stream is labeled Lick Branch, as described above. Apparently its entire flow is now enclosed. Too bad. Streams can be pleasing.

Fascinating responses, VandyfanKY and vandytoad...

FayetteDore, your map is fascinating too, but I think where the stadium would be today is just below where you cropped it off. I think if you go a little south with your cropping, we might see exactly where that big pipe cuts underneath the football field today... am I right?

I'm also thinking that the reason they have unearthed the pipe in the playing field-- knowing nothing about engineering-- is that they are about to put down a foundation/footers for the basketball facility / north end zone stands, and the last thing they want to do is dig a hole that damages the storm drain. Seems like they will have to put the footers down around it. Anyone want to weigh in on that theory?

Brent, I think you're right.

Here's an expanded view, indicating there were several small streams in the area where the stadium and the entire athletic complex is. And btw, this and many, many other maps are available for free on the Tennessee Virtual Archives section of the State Library & Archives website. You can see (and expand) this entire map here: https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital ... 426/rec/29 This one is 1879, only a few years after VU was founded.


And HistoryBill, you're exactly right: several streams and creeks show up on this original "drainage map of Nashville" that have obviously been buried: https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital ... 655/rec/72

Unrelated to the streams/drain pipes.

I see “Hillsboro Turnpike” on that map. Was it a toll road at some point?

Versus75 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 04, 2023 4:52 pm Unrelated to the streams/drain pipes.

I see “Hillsboro Turnpike” on that map. Was it a toll road at some point?

Yes it was, in the 19th century. I've seen the historical marker for this, near the fire station on the corner of Hillsboro Rd. and Ashwood Ave.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=81454