Time to Spring Forward!

It is starting to look a lot like spring in the Sunol Valley. One of our team members snapped this picture of some Golden Poppies from the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project construction site. In addition, it is time to spring forward with Daylight savings time starting this Sunday, March 13, 2016. Don’t forget to turn your clocks forward one hour for more light in the evening and a later sunrise! Hello Spring!

What do water pipes, water conservation, fossils and dams have in common?

They were all part of the cool topics shared with the Sunol Glen School students last week at their annual Earth/Science Day festivities.  We at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission were honored to be a guest again this year to share information about the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.

We are always surprised and amazed at the enthusiasm and smarts of these first through eighth graders. Did you know that the California State Flower is the Golden Poppy? They did. Did you know that you could save your shower water in a bucket and water your plants with it? They did. Did you know the Sunol Valley was once a coastline? Many of them knew that, too. They enjoyed looking at the 20 million year old fossils unearthed during the construction of the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, including a prehistoric shark tooth, seashells and rocks from the site.

We had a blast at Sunol Glen School and can’t wait to be back!

Now, for bonus points, what is the California State Fish? (Sunol Glen students, no telling!)

Update on the Town of Sunol Fire Suppression Project for the weeks of November 24 and December 1, 2014

The majority of the work within the Town has been completed. However, there is some work left to be done.

Construction Currently Underway or Planned for the Next 2 weeks

Pipeline connections at Sunol Glen School

Pipeline connections will be made between the new and old systems at the Sunol Glen School Parking lot the week of December 1st.  We will minimize any impacts to the school. The water supply to the town and school will not be affected. 

Service Connection Upgrades

As part of this project, SFPUC crews, together with our contractor, will inspect selected service connections of SFPUC customers. The service connection consists of the section of pipe between the water meter box and the street main which is maintained by the SFPUC. Should the inspection show the connection needing an upgrade, we will schedule a replacement and notify the property owner.

The connections on Main Street will be first, with inspections starting the week of Thanksgiving. 

Installation of bollards around fire hydrants

In order to protect some of the newly installed hydrants from accidental damage from vehicles, we will install bollards around the more exposed hydrants after the week of December 8th.  These bollards will conform with Alameda County Fire Specifications.

Installation of one of the two replacement tanks on tank hill continues. Work on the tanks on the hill will continue through next summer.

Pavement Restoration 

Once all the construction work within town is complete, we will work with Alameda County inspectors, repair street structural damage caused by the construction, and slurry seal Main Street.

The Jack and Bore work to lay pipe underneath the Union Pacific Railroad on Main Street was

recently completed.

What has been completed to date:

• Installation of approximately 2 miles of transmission mains on Main St, Bond St, Foothill East and West and Kilkare Road.
• Placement of all of the 26 planned fire hydrants.
• Placing pipe across three bridges: Bond, Foothill, and Kilkare
• Removal of two water tanks on Tank Hill.
• Pipeline tie in work at Kilkare Road
• Jack and Bore Crossing of Alameda County Railroad at the intersection of Main Street, Kilkare Road, and West Foothill Road.
• Jack and Bore crossing under the Union Pacific Railroad on Main Street.
• Pipeline Tie in work on Main Street near Bond

What is coming:

• The new hydrants will be charged and ready for use.
• The new water storage tank on Tank Hill will be placed in service during the next 3 months.
• Thereafter, a pair of older water storage tanks will be demolished
• and construction will start on the second water storage tank.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns.

24-hour Answering Line: 
(866) 973-1476

epowell@sfwater.org
blauppe@sfwater.org

Thank you for your patience!

Neighbors Catch up on the New Irvington Tunnel

Thank you to all of the community members who dropped by the New Irvington Tunnel Open House at the Mission Coffee House last week!  It was really great to see you.  For those of you who weren’t able to attend, here are the highlights as shared by the project team.

• The New Irvington Tunnel Project is currently 95% complete.
• The steel liner of the tunnel has been installed. We are welding and grouting the space between the tunnel lining and the outside of the tunnel to seal the tunnel off from groundwater intrusion.
• The 3.5 mile New Irvington Tunnel will be brought into service sometime this fall 2014, allowing us to take the old tunnel out of service for inspection and possible repairs.
•  Overall project completion is anticipated in fall 2015, soon after we complete site restoration of all of the above ground work.
• The New Irvington Tunnel runs parallel to the existing tunnel (which was built in 1932)  between the Sunol Valley south of Highway I-680 and Fremont, California. It provides a seismically designed connection between Sierra Nevada and Alameda Watershed water supplies and 2.6 million Bay Area customers.

We will be back out with another open house in a about three months, so we hope you can make the next one. 

Neighbors have some tunnel talk at the New Irvington Tunnel Open House

The Last Butterfly Valve for New Irvington Tunnel

You know you’re making progress on construction when you start celebrating your ‘lasts.’ Last excavation to be completed. Check!  Last steel liner inserted into the tunnel. Check! Now we have another: the last valve to be installed underground.

And not just ANY valve. This is a valve that is 8 feet in diameter that will eventually divert water from the existing piping connections into the New Irvington Tunnel.  This Butterfly Valve regulates flow within the pipe with a rotating a disc within the pipe. When closed, the disc, or butterfly, completely blocks flow.  When open , as seen in this sample of a butterfly valve from a dam in Japan, the disc rotates one quarter to allow flow to pass by.

And operating this valve is no easy task. If you were to manually crank it closed (or ‘actuate it’, as our operators say), you’d need a whopping 400 revolutions.  Our operators use electric actuators for this very reason, and will be able to operate this valve remotely.

We hope to actuate this valve to bring the New Irvington Tunnel into service this Fall!

New Irvington Team installs final valve

Sample Butterfly Valve
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Calaveras Dam building a new and improved Spillway

Things sure look much different than it did in the early 1900s when the workers at the Calaveras Dam site were building the original spillway for the existing Calaveras Dam.  Today, we are building a new spillway over twice the size of the original.

Calaveras Dam workers rebuilding the spillway in 1933

Calaveras Dam workers today working on the foundation of
the upper portion of the new spillway

What’s the Spillway for?

A spillway is a structure used to control the release of flows from a dam into a downstream area. Spillways release overflow of water or floods so that the water does not overtop and damage the dam. When complete, the new spillway for the replacement dam will be approximately 1,550 feet in length and will be constructed using 40,000 cubic yards of concrete. Much work still lies ahead, but we are well on our way to rebuilding a critical feature of the replacement Calaveras Dam.  

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.

Series #2 Do you Know Your Tap Water? – Local Waters

Second in our series of ‘Do you know your tap water’, begs the question, OK, 85% from Hetch Hetchy, straight through the Sunol Valley to our customers… but what about the rest?

 
The rest of the water supply comes from local reservoirs. In the Sunol Valley that includes two: Calaveras and San Antonio Reservoirs. Calaveras, when full, is our system’s second largest drinking water reservoir, second only to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It also stores only local watershed waters from the Arroyo Hondo and Alameda Creek. San Antonio Reservoir, on the other hand, stores water from San Antonio Creek, and we can also store Hetch Hetchy water there as well.
 

Calaveras Reservoir, shown here prior to the start of construction of the Replacement Calaveras Dam, stores local water only.

 San Antonio Reservoir Stores both Local Watershed Waters and Hetch Hetch Hetchy Water

We must filter the water from these local reservoirs at our Sunol Valley Water Treatment Plant before we send it to our customers.

Some facts about local dams and reservoirs that you may not know:

• The dam at San Antonio Reservoir is called Turner Dam, after former SFPUC General Manager, James H. Turner.

Turner Dam

• When originally constructed in 1925, Calaveras Dam was the largest earth-fill dam in the world.

Existing Calaveras Dam. The New dam is being constructed directly downstream of the existing one. The site looks very different today!

 

• Both reservoirs support habitat for many rare and endangered species. Each reservoir also has a nesting pair of bald eagles. Learn more about them here.

Catch up on the Do you know your Tap Water series.

See you around Sunol Valley!