Legionella issue Tinbergen unsolved; work to continue until December

The Tinbergen Building will continue to be subject to restricted access in the coming months. Despite the measures that have been implemented in recent months, higher-than-desired concentrations of Legionella bacteria continue to be found in the building’s water.

In order to improve water quality, new water pipes are being installed, firstly on the ground floor, which is home to the cafeteria (among other things). As a result, the cafeteria is expected to be able to reopen its doors in late August. Once the work on the ground floor has been completed, the other floors will be tackled one by one. The work is expected to be completed in December 2021.

The Tinbergen Building closed its doors on 20 May, when Legionella bacteria were found in the drinking water. The building had not been used much for a while at the time due to staff working remotely and due to the study spots having been closed in preparation for the Testing for Your Future experiment. The closing of the building also caused the cafeteria, Erasmus Magazine’s office and the University Council’s office to be closed. Several IT service units have temporarily moved to other buildings as well.

Despite the fact that there are many toilets available in the adjacent Theil Building, the Tinbergen Building cannot yet open its doors to office workers or students. “Pursuant to the Building Decree, buildings that serve teaching or office purposes must have sufficient toilets available for their users. For this reason, we will not be able to reopen the Tinbergen Building until toilet facilities are available,” the university stated on its intranet.