New Irvington Tunnel Roadheaders Get Well-Deserved Break

They worked an average of 20 hours a day, 5 days a week for two and a half years; grinding away at rock hundreds  of feet underground. And now, they’re finally getting the rest they deserve.

The three road headers that helped excavate the New Irvington Tunnel were removed from the tunnel last month after we holed through from tunnel headings and they are now out in the fresh air and resting after completing the excavation of the three and half mile-long tunnel.  The largest of the group is a Mitsui Miike which weighs in at 57 tons. The two Antraquip roadheaders each weigh 36 tons. 

What lies ahead for our three tunnel veterans? All three machines could be refurbished for use at future jobs. 

While the workhorses await their future fate, work continues to complete the New Irvington Tunnel. Crews will begin installing the steel lining soon. The entire project is expected to be complete in 2015.

Milestone Breakthrough for the New Irvington Tunnel

Roadheader breaks through for final hole-through on October 8th

On October 8, 2013 at precisely 9:00 a.m. two crews of miners from the New Irvington Tunnel project met underground with their roadheader digging away at the last final feet of rock.  Miners celebrated the final hole-through excavation of the 18,660 foot tunnel.  The 3.5 mile New Irvington Tunnel will transmit water between the Sunol Valley and Fremont to our 2.6 million Bay Area customers. Work is still not quite done yet, our miners will prepare the new tunnel for installation of 8.5 ft diameter steel pipe, installed in 50-foot sections and welded together inside of the tunnel.  This will be followed by the placement of cellular concrete between the steel pipe and tunnel wall to complete the project in mid-2015. 

 

Hole-Through Challenge Winner: Priya Iyer
With that, we also would like to congratulate our Hole-Through Challenge contestant.... Priya Iyer! Priya selected the winning time and date of the hole-through and will be receiving our prize package.  Congratulations to Priya!

Our hardworking New Irvington Tunnel crew

                                      Tunnel Superintendents Jim Mulkey and Jack Bowling from 

                                      Southland Contracting share a handshake after the hole-through.

New Irvington Tunnel Project Staff celebrates Hole-Through

New Irvington Tunnel Neighbors compete in the Final Tunnel Hole-Through Challenge at Open House

Last week, neighbors of the New Irvington Tunnel project stopped in for a cup of coffee and to hear the latest updates on tunnel progress at Mission Coffee House in Fremont.  Attendees were able to discuss construction progress, see new project photos, handle some rock samples collected from tunneling, and participate in the final "hole-through" challenge. 

 Residents participate in the Tunnel Hole-Through Challenge

We are still anticipating the exciting moment when the miners will meet underground between the tunnel segment from Vargas East to Alameda West Portal.  The winner will be notified to receive their gift basket of local goodies as soon as the day comes.  Thank you to all who have participated in the New Irvington Tunnel Hole-Through Challenge!  

Our final guesses are shown here:

For more project info, please email mle@sfwater.org or call our 24 hour answer line 866-973-1476.

Your Challenge - When will our Tunnels Meet?

Sometime in the next few weeks, two teams of miners will meet hundreds of feet underground. One is excavating the New Irvington Tunnel eastward from the Vargas Shaft near I-680; the other is working its way west from the Alameda West Portal in Sunol Valley.

When will they meet?
Guess correctly and you could win a wonderful prize pack featuring gift certificates to local businesses!

Need a little help?
As of September 14, 2013, our miners have tunneled 5,044 feet east from Vargas and 8,758 feet west from Alameda West. In ideal ground conditions, crews have tunneled an average of 130 feet per week. When ground conditions are poor they excavate less than 20 feet. We have 405 feet left to go to hole-through as of September 14, 2013.

How to Play

The chart squares shown below correspond to a possible date and timeframe when the tunneling teams will meet. Selections already submitted by contestants are indicated by a “star “.

1. Choose three squares and e-mail your choices to: mle@sfwater.org
2. If your first choice is available, then you will be assigned that square. If the square is unavailable, then the next available choice is assigned. You will receive an email confirmation with your selection.
3. Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place. Squares will be assigned on a first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person
4. Please include your name, phone number and e-mail address so we can contact you if you make the winning selection.
5. Submissions will be accepted through September 29, 2013.  GOOD LUCK!

New Irvington Tunnel Project Background

The SFPUC is constructing a new 3.5 mile long tunnel to transmit water between the Sunol Valley and Fremont. The New Irvington Tunnel has been excavated from four different tunnel headings. The first two headings met each other in June 2012. This second and final ‘hole-through’ will mark the completion of excavation of the entire 18,660 ft tunnel. Following the hole-through, miners will prepare the tunnel for the installation of 8.5 ft diameter steel pipe, installed in 50-foot sections and welded together inside of the tunnel. This is a major milestone as the final project completion is near!

Tag Team Heavyweights

We had to snap this picture because it is so rare to find both the Antraquip AQM 150 (left) and the Mitsui Miike (right) road headers under blue skies.  The road headers are highly mobile tracked tunneling machines used for conventional excavation.  Don’t let the well worn appearance of these machines fool you.  At a combined 90-tons these two heavyweights were built to chew up hard rock deep underground.  But even big bad machines need a day in the sun for routine maintenance.

This dynamic duo, Mitsui Miike and his sidekick, Antraquip, are “experienced” tunnel excavators and were instrumental in cutting through hard Briones sandstone, Great Valley shales, and a host of varied ground formations.  Meantime, a third roadheader, Antraquip’s twin brother is taking its turn in the mines and recently scored a single day record of 60 feet of tunnel excavation in one heading—as much daily excavation as produced by three headings just last year.  Together the three roadheaders have been instrumental in mining over 11,000 feet of tunnel as of August 2012.

Great job big boys and enjoy the day in the sun!

A Road Header Rendezvous

9:46 AM June 12, 2012

Inside of a 13-foot diameter hole carved into the Alameda foothills, crews waited yesterday morning staring at an imposing rock wall.  A moment later, as if it came from within the mountain, a spinning titanium studded knuckle broke through. It moved back and forth and up and down until the wall disappeared.  What happened next was a long time coming: two crews, dressed in identical hard hats, headlamps and goggles stepped through the new hole, shook hands and then shared a laugh.

Video Captured with Permissible Camera

After 13 months of digging the New Irvington Tunnel from four separate tunnel headings, miners from two of the headings met up with each other underground today. Called a ‘hole-through’ in tunneling terminology, the road header teams from the Irvington Portal in Fremont and the Vargas Shaft 4,500 feet away shook hands somewhere under the mountainside and formally completed this section of tunnel excavation.

The road header holes-through the rock face

Miners at the Irvington Portal watch the road header hole-through from the Vargas Heading 

Miners celebrate their achievement

Photographs by R. Scheswohl ©2012 SFPUC, All Rights Reserved

The tunnel is excavated using conventional mining methods including a road header (a tracked tunneling machine) and, in sections of hard rock, controlled detonations.  In May 2011, a 55-ton road header was lowered down the 115-foot Vargas Shaft and began to grind its way west.  A month later, miners at the Irvington Portal in Fremont began tunneling east and set the two crews on a collision course.  

Following today’s hole-through, miners will prepare the tunnel for the installation of 102-inch diameter steel pipe.  The pipe, manufactured in California, is installed in 50-foot sections and welded together inside of the tunnel.   The much longer 14,400-foot Alameda West-Vargas tunnel segment is currently being excavated and is expected to hole through in fall 2013.  Construction of the entire project is scheduled for completion in fall 2014.

Last Chance to Enter the Road Header Rendezvous Challenge!

May 31^st is the final day to make your selection in the NIT Road Header Rendezvous Challenge!  As of May 29, mining crews are now within 265 feet of connecting the Irvington and Vargas West tunnel headings.

Your challenge is to figure out the day and time you think the tunneling workers will meet. Guess correctly and you could win a prize pack featuring gift certificates to local business and other goodies! The chart has squares corresponding to a date and timeframe in June or July, when the rendezvous could happen. Selections submitted by contestants are indicated by a star.

Update: If no one selects the square with the date and time of the hole-through then the “Price is Right” rule goes into effect.  The person with the closest selection without going over is the winner. 

 For example:

Jane from Fremont selects June 22 6:01PM – 12:00 AM

John from Sunol selects June 23 12:01 PM – 6:00 PM

The actual hole-through takes place on June 23 between 6:01 AM – 12:00 PM.  Jane is the winner because she guessed closest to the actual hole-through without overshooting her estimate.

How to Enter

1) Choose your top three squares and e-mail your choices to: fzamora@sfwater.org

2) Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place. Squares will be assigned first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person

3) If the first choice is available then the square is assigned to that person. If the square is unavailable then the next available choice is assigned.

4) Submissions will be accepted until May 31. Please include your name, address, phone number and e-mail so we can contact you if you're successful!

Good luck!

Join the New Irvington Tunnel Roadheader Challenge!

The New Irvington Tunnel Roadheader Challenge is stil underway. Don't miss out on an opportunity to make the winning selection!

Tunneling excavation continues east from Mission Boulevard with the use of controlled detonation at a rate of approximately 12 feet per day. A road header travels west from I-680 at a rate of approximately 15 feet per day. When will the two meet?

Your challenge is to figure out the day and time you think the tunneling workers will meet. Guess correctly and you could win a prize pack featuring gift certificates to local business and other goodies! The chart has squares corresponding to a date and timeframe in June or July, when the rendezvous could happen. Selections submitted by contestants are indicated by a star.

Information to Help You Choose

In June or July, miners excavating the new tunnel from the Irvington Portal in Fremont will meet miners tunneling west from the Vargas Shaft. When it happens this hole-through will mark the completion of the Irvington-Vargas tunnel segment.

The tunnel segment between Irvington Portal and Vargas Shaft is 4,500 feet long. As of May 12th, miners have tunneled 1,787 feet east from Irvington and 2,070 feet west from Vargas. Ground conditions dictate excavation. In ideal ground conditions, crews have tunneled up to 98 feet in a day. When ground conditions are poor they excavate less than 20 feet. Miners do not tunnel on Sundays.

How to Enter

1) Choose your top three squares and e-mail your choices to: fzamora@sfwater.org

2) Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place. Squares will be assigned first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person

3) If the first choice is available then the square is assigned to that person. If the square is unavailable then the next available choice is assigned.

4) Submissions will be accepted until May 31. Please include your name, address, phone number and e-mail so we can contact you if you're successful!

Good luck!

New Irvington Tunnel Challenge Continues!

Tunneling excavation continues east from Mission Boulevard with the use of controlled detonation at a rate of approximately 12 feet per day. A road header travels west from I-680 at a rate of approximately 15 feet per day. When will the two meet?

Your challenge is to figure out the day and time you think the tunneling workers will meet. Guess correctly and you could win a prize pack featuring gift certificates to local business and other goodies! The chart has squares corresponding to a date and timeframe in June or July, when the rendezvous could happen. Selections submitted by contestants are indicated by a star.

Information to Help You Choose

In June or July, miners excavating the new tunnel from the Irvington Portal in Fremont will meet miners tunneling west from the Vargas Shaft. When it happens this hole-through will mark the completion of the Irvington-Vargas tunnel segment.

The tunnel segment between Irvington Portal and Vargas Shaft is 4,500 feet long. As of May 7th, miners have tunneled 1,747 feet east from Irvington and 1,955 feet west from Vargas. Ground conditions dictate excavation. In ideal ground conditions, crews have tunneled up to 98 feet in a day. When ground conditions are poor they excavate less than 20 feet. Miners do not tunnel on Sundays.

How to Enter

1) Choose your top three squares and e-mail your choices to: fzamora@sfwater.org

2) Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place. Squares will be assigned first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person

3) If the first choice is available then the square is assigned to that person. If the square is unavailable then the next available choice is assigned.

4) Submissions will be accepted until May 31. Please include your name, address, phone number and e-mail so we can contact you if you're successful!

Good luck!

New Irvington Tunnel Challenge!

Tunneling excavation continues east from Mission Boulevard with the use of controlled detonation at a rate of approximately 12 feet per day. A road header travels west from I-680 at a rate of approximately 15 feet per day. When will the two meet?

Your challenge is to figure out the day and time you think the tunneling workers will meet. Guess correctly and you could win a prize pack featuring gift certificates to local business and other goodies! The chart has 101 squares each corresponding to a date and timeframe in June when the rendezvous could happen. Selections for this week are indicated by an “X”.

How to Enter

1) Choose your top three squares and e-mail your choices to: fzamora@sfwater.org

2) Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place.

3) Squares will be assigned first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person

4) If the first choice is available then the square is assigned to that person. If the square is unavailable then the next available choice is assigned.

5) Submissions will be accepted until May 31. Please include your name, address, phone number and e-mail so we can contact you if you're successful!

Information to Help You Choose

In June, miners excavating the new tunnel from the Irvington Portal in Fremont will meet miners tunneling west from the Vargas Shaft. When it happens this hole-through will mark the completion of the Irvington-Vargas tunnel segment. The tunnel segment between Irvington Portal and Vargas Shaft is 4,500 feet long. As of April 28th, miners have tunneled 1,702 feet east from Irvington and 1,890 feet west from Vargas. Ground conditions dictate excavation. In ideal ground conditions, crews have tunneled up to 98 feet in a day. When ground conditions are poor they excavate less than 20 feet. Miners do not tunnel on Sundays. Good Luck!

Road Header Rendezvous Challenge

A road header travels east from Mission Boulevard at rate of 45 feet per day. A second road header travels west from I-680 at a rate of 35 feet per day. When will the two road headers meet?

At some point, we’ve all scratched our heads and tried to figure out a math problem like that. Here at the SFPUC we won’t ask you to solve word problems. Instead, we invite you to be part of our Road Header Rendezvous Challenge.

In June, miners excavating the new tunnel from the Irvington Portal in Fremont will meet miners tunneling west from the Vargas Shaft. When it happens this hole-through will mark the completion of the Irvington-Vargas tunnel segment.

The chart above has 101 squares each corresponding to a date and timeframe in June when the rendezvous could happen. Your challenge is to figure out the day and time combination. Guess correctly and you could win a prize pack featuring gift certificates to local business and other goodies.

How to Enter
Choose your top three squares and e-mail your choices to fzamora@sfwater.org. Include the date and time you think the hole-through will take place. Squares will be assigned first come, first serve. Only one square is allowed per person.

For example, someone could submit the following:

1. June 19 between 6:01 AM and 12:00 PM
2. June 5 between 6:01 PM and 12:00 AM 
3. June 28 between 12:01 AM and 6:00 AM 

If the first choice is available then the square is assigned to that person. If the square is unavailable then the next available choice is assigned.

Submissions will be accepted until May 31. Please include your name, address, phone number and e-mail so we can contact you if you're successful!

Information to Help You Choose
The tunnel segment between Irvington Portal and Vargas Shaft is 4,500 feet long. As of April 24, miners have tunneled 1,657 feet east from Irvington and 1,810 feet west from Vargas. Ground conditions dictate excavation. In ideal ground conditions, crews have tunneled up to 98 feet in a day. When ground conditions are poor they excavate less than 20 feet. In the last month miners averaged 38 feet per day. Miners do not tunnel on Sundays.

We’ll update the tunnel’s progress every week at www.sfwater.org/nit. Good luck!

Lasers: Inline and On-Target

“Record Day of Tunneling: DS- Laser Road Header Blasts through Miles of Rock!”

This is what a headline could say in the year 2082 during the construction of the New New Irvington Tunnel. Today, lasers serve a much different but very important purpose of keeping tunnel excavation inline and on-target.


The alignment of the New Irvington Tunnel stretches 3.5 miles from the Sunol Valley to Fremont. At depths of up to 700 feet below ground surface, crews are working in four headings to excavate the new tunnel. With miners deep underground tunneling in four different directions, how do they make sure the tunnels line up? How do they keep from tunneling into Livermore or Union City? The answer: Lasers.


Inside of each tunnel heading laser beams cut through low light conditions and provide alignment control. The lasers are mounted on the left and right side of the tunnel near the tunnel entry and project their beams on the rock face that is being excavated. Crews operating the road headers keep the machine between these beams to stay on target. Surveyors are brought in between each tunnel set (typically four feet of tunneling) to verify that the alignment of the tunnel is accurate.

Laser Road Headers and Lightsabres may never become more than the wishful thinking of science fiction enthusiasts. But for miners and the 2.5 million people that depend on a safe and secure Hetchy Hetchy Water System lasers keep the New Irvington Tunnel on-target!

Grinding Forward

Tunnel crews are grinding their way forward on the New Irvington Tunnel Project. Miners excavate in four directions using road headers (tracked tunneling machines) and controlled detonations when necessary to dig out the 18,600-foot (3.5 mile) tunnel.

Over 2000 feet of tunnel has been excavated with approximately 16,600 feet remaining. Last Friday tunnel crews dug out a new daily record of 50 feet for the project. As the crews become more familiar with and how to deal with the variable ground conditions, the mining production has steadily improved each week. Tunnel excavation is estimated for completion in mid-2013 with project completion in mid-2014. Check out www.sfwater.org/nit for weekly updates of tunnel progress.

The New Irvington Tunnel will provide a seismically-designed connection between water supplies from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Alameda Watershed to Bay Area water distribution systems. The new tunnel will lay parallel to the existing tunnel between the Sunol Valley south of Highway I-680 and Fremont, California.

KTVU Video: New Irvington Tunnel Project Underway

Want to take an exclusive look at the New Irvington Tunnel? Check out KTVU Channel 2's sneak peak at the construction taking place to seismically upgrade the aging Hetch Hetchy Water System.

http://www.ktvu.com/video/27877116/index.html

@ Work: Alameda West Portal

After months of working primarily above ground, construction workers are set to grind into the first inches of rock that make up the 3.5 mile New Irvington Tunnel. Here are some photos of crews @ Work on the eve of the first day of tunneling:

The AQM 150-HR Roadheader moves into position at the Alameda West Portal

Portal spiles are drilled to provide support for tunnel excavation.

Getting ready to knock on the door of the New Irvington Tunnel.