Jasper Bateman
DEI Chair
Photo by IZZIE NOELLE| Photo Editor
The walkway between Houghton Hall, the Science Center and McEwen Hall is crumbling and splitting apart into jagged edges, causing students to trip over it.
“I personally have become victim of this multiple times,” said sophomore geology major Sam Post.
Dr. Thomas Hegna, chair of the geology and environmental science department, stated that the walkway is made of Pennsylvania Bluestone.
Pennsylvania Bluestone is a fine-grained sandstone, making it porous and less resistant to certain climate conditions. Specifically, Pennsylvania Bluestone is vulnerable to wet-to-dry and freezing-to-thawing cycles, which Western New York is known for.
This causes the walkway and the stone to start breaking.
The bluestone first made a prominent appearance on campus when the Science Center was constructed, between the summer of 2011 and the fall of 2014.
This makes the walkway over a decade old.
According to WeConservePA, the problem will only get worse.
Pennsylvania Bluestone being this broken for its age and the climate conditions that Fredonia is under will cause the walkway to break away more.
Post worries that if the situation is not fixed, students, bike riders and skateboarders will be affected more than they already are.
Post and other students worry about their current to day-to-day lives on campus because they might trip on the broken sandstone, and they have to be more vigilant when walking to class.
They also worry about how much worse this situation could become.
With spring approaching and snow being gone, the damage that occurred during the winter is starting to be exposed.
“It will only keep wearing away and breaking,” Post said. “In just a few more winters, it’s going to be way worse and will harm students more than it [does] now.”
Students walking isn’t just an issue. The campus has a portion of its student body that rides bikes, skateboards and scooters as their primary means of transportation.
“I’ve seen students on bikes and skateboards trip before,” said Post. “I worry that one day they will get seriously hurt.”
While Pennsylvania Bluestone is durable for high traffic areas, it can flake off in layers if it’s not properly maintained.
Combined with an ever-changing climate, it’s a recipe for exactly what we’re seeing now, according to Post.
If the Pennsylvania Bluestone is not sealed, water seeps into the pores of the rock and freezes.
This pops off pieces of the rock, causing it to flake.
Although Fredonia is no stranger to flakes of snow, flakes of sidewalk could create a much more dangerous issue.