TROY -- Citing an unsafe road, the city fire department wants the state to shut down an RPI computer center building as uninhabitable.

The engineering department ticketed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for not building an access road to the Voorhees Computer Center that can handle a fire truck.

RPI constructed a 10-footwide road with 5-footwide adjacent grass pavers, which are metal lattice through which grass can grow.

"They deliberately violated the New York state building code,'' which requires a 20-footwide access road, Fire Chief Thomas Garrett said Tuesday.

"It's hard to believe they would deliberately jeopardize the students and the faculty and put the responding firefighters' lives in jeopardy,'' Garrett said.

Claude Rounds, RPI's vice president for administration, said the university has improved access to the buildings and strengthened the underground support so that fire apparatus can be safely driven.

"We're not going to tear up all the pavers and build a 20-foot concrete access road,'' Rounds said. He said the work was designed with environmentally friendly guidelines.

Garrett ordered firefighters not to enter the building in the event of a blaze, but would fight a fire from outside. Garrett also wrote to the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control to shut the facility.

"At this time, I am asking and recommending that you declare this building uninhabitable due to these deliberate fire violations,'' Garrett said in a Jan. 12 letter to the state.

The fire department and RPI previously clashed over the safety of firefighters responding to calls at the campus. A June 30 fire in a third-floor laboratory at the four-story Jonsson-Rowland Science Center left Garrett and firefighters angry when they did not know what potential hazards they faced.

The city engineering office and RPI exchanged memos on the failure to install the asphalt or concrete pavement at the Voorhees Building.

The city engineering office said the installation of this type of paver was not approved. Rounds said the pavers were clearly shown on the plans submitted to the city.

"The fire chief and I are in agreement that this situation has to be properly dealt with,'' City Engineer Russ Reeves said.

RPI could face a fine of $1,000 to $2,000 over the incident, Reeves said. He added that a permit fee may be levied instead.

RPI officials and Reeves met Friday to discuss access and solutions. Reeves said these included allowing the metal lattice pavers, installing brick pavers or the 20-foot wide asphalt road.

"It will be done to the satisfaction of the fire department,'' Reeves said.

Rounds said RPI will install concrete next to the computing building in place of the pavers there.

Repaving could not take place until spring, Reeves said. RPI agreed to plow down to the metal surface and brush away the ice and snow until then.

Contact Kenneth C. Crowe II at 454-5084 or kcrowe@timesunion.com.