Breaking Higher Education's Billion-Dollar Backlog Problem
Strategic mechanical system design can transform campus maintenance backlogs. Here's how.
Across American campuses, facility managers face a stark reality: a staggering $112 billion maintenance backlog threatens the foundational infrastructure of higher education, according to APPA. Unaddressed repairs create deteriorating conditions that force students and faculty to endure uncomfortable learning environments, disrupted operations, and potentially hazardous facilities. This deferred maintenance crisis represents both a challenge and opportunity for facilities professionals. Strategic mechanical system choices can reduce maintenance complexity and minimize downtime to help facilities managers catch up to and regain control over their growing maintenance to-do lists.
The Perfect Maintenance Storm: Staffing Shortages Meet $112 billion Backlog
Skilled labor shortages have dramatically affected daily maintenance operations across higher education institutions. According to NFPA's 2025 Industry Trends survey, 50% of facilities professionals cite qualified worker shortages as their most pressing challenge. This staffing crisis is projected to worsen as experienced personnel retire and institutions struggle with retention. Many institutions haven't returned to pre-pandemic staffing levels due to these shortages, forcing remaining maintenance staff to do more with fewer resources.
Workforce challenges only scratch the surface. Budgetary constraints create difficult choices around which repairs to address first. According to Gordian's 12th Annual State of Facilities in Higher Education report, clearing maintenance backlogs costs facilities $140 per square foot in accumulated repairs — up 2% from 2024. Simultaneously, institutions still face a sizable funding gap of over 32%. The financial pressure has led many institutions to defer all but the most critical repairs, creating a snowball effect that compounds over time.
Unfortunately, when critical systems do fail, the emergency repairs often cost significantly more than preventative maintenance would have. According to research conducted by the Pacific Partners Consulting Group, every $1 in deferred maintenance will cost education facilities $4 in future capital renewal needs. This multiplier effect creates an accelerating deterioration cycle that threatens the foundation of campus operations. The longer maintenance is deferred, the more expensive the eventual repairs become — and the greater the risk of catastrophic failures that can shut down entire buildings or systems. Higher education institutions can break this cycle by investing in strategic design solutions that prioritize maintenance as a mission-critical need rather than a wishlist item. Rather than accepting maintenance challenges as inevitable, forward-thinking institutions are rethinking their mechanical infrastructure to meet both immediate needs and future demands.
How Central Utility Plants Transform Maintenance
It's common to see older campus buildings designed to have their own individual mechanical systems. However, this fragmentation creates inefficiencies and vulnerabilities across campus infrastructure. Transitioning from individual building systems to central utility plants enables higher education institutions to streamline and consolidate maintenance tasks. These systems replace individual boilers and chillers in each building with a single, centralized plant that distributes hot and cold water through campus-wide pipes. These loops simplify the overall system architecture and reduce the number of complex mechanical components across a campus.
Instead of having numerous mechanical rooms with unique configurations, maintenance protocols and equipment requirements that require various specialized skills, central utility plants allow institutions to focus resources and expertise in fewer locations. This significantly reduces the complexity of daily operations and makes maintenance more manageable with existing staff. When specialized knowledge is concentrated in fewer locations, training existing staff to manage centralized systems effectively becomes more feasible. This allows institutions to build teams with deep maintenance expertise rather than requiring broad, generalized knowledge across multiple disparate systems or outsourced labor.
Beyond streamlining maintenance, central utility plants provide significant advantages over individual building systems, including better energy efficiency through economies of scale and built-in equipment redundancy, which improves system reliability. While transitioning to central utility plants represents a significant capital investment, the long-term savings in maintenance efficiency and reduced complexity can offset initial costs through decreased operational expenses and improved system reliability.