diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/qt/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/qt/package.py
index 95698018fa41ae258b64b79214f92532df7514f9..447af5f1af83008853ea05ac5ceef171de775cc8 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/qt/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/qt/package.py
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ def common_config_args(self):
     @when('@3')
     def configure(self):
         # A user reported that this was necessary to link Qt3 on ubuntu
-        os.environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = os.getcwd() + '/lib'
+        os.environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] += os.pathsep + os.getcwd() + '/lib'
         configure('-prefix', self.prefix,
                   '-v',
                   '-thread',