Pioneering Pipe 106

A few years from now it might be difficult to differentiate Pipe 106 from all the components of the Hetch Hetchy Water System.  After all, the 50-foot pipe is a relatively small piece of the complex series of reservoirs, tunnels, pipelines and treatment systems that deliver drinking water from Yosemite National Park to the San Francisco Bay Area.

So what’s so special about Pipe 106? Last week it was the first steel pipe section to enter the New Irvington Tunnel! Check it out!

It’s just like Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon right? Okay, not quite. But here at the New Irvington Tunnel we think it’s pretty exciting.

Standing alone at 102-inches (8.5-feet) in diameter, Pipe 106 was the first of 373 50-foot sections that will eventually carry drinking water to 2.6 million Bay Area residents.  Crews loaded the pipe onto a custom-made carrier that traveled just over 4,200 feet from the tunnel portal to its final position underground.  As a pioneer, Pipe 106 led the way for over 1,700 feet of pipe to enter the tunnel to date.

So on a hot summer day in the not so distant future when you reach for that glass of drinking water, remember Pioneering Pipe 106!

Geologist by Day, Beekeeper by Night

During the day Scott Ball works underground somewhere between Fremont and Sunol.  As a geologist, he documents and examines rock conditions inside of the New Irvington Tunnel.  He helps ensure the tunnel is excavated safely and according to design specifications. Scott also monitors construction activity at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project. Underground or above it- Scott is one of the many men and women working seismically upgrade the Hetch Hetchy Water System.

When he goes home at night he trades his hard hat, miners lamp and self-rescuer for a veil, gloves and a smoker.  Why?  Scott is also a hobbyist beekeeper.

Recently, his day job required the talents of his night job.  Crews noticed that a colony of honeybees had taken up residence inside of a sound wall at the Irvington Portal.  Luckily, help to safely relocate the colony was not far away. After his shift, Scott donned his beekeeper gear and went to work.

Scott, joined by environmental inspector Carrie Dovzak, started by filling the feral colony with smoke.  Smoke calms bees and masks alarm pheromones released by guard bees. The reaction created an opportunity for Scott and Carrie to open the hive and work without triggering a defensive reaction.

Scott carefully removed the bees from the hive using a bee capture container and a shopvac. Capturing the bees first makes it easier to remove the comb without having honey soaked bees and wax all over.  The honeycomb was removed from the wall and placed into moveable frame hives.

Once out of the wall and in their new hive, Scott moved the feral colony near his home.   The bees in the hive continue to thrive there … just away from an active construction site.

New Irvington Tunnel Project Open House

Please Join Us for Coffee at the New Irvington Tunnel Project Open House

Thursday July 26, 2012
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Mission Coffee
151 Washington Blvd
Fremont, CA

Please stop by and check in on the progress of the new tunnel.  Our project team is available to answer your questions and listen to your comments.

Project Update
Over 10,000  feet (out of 18,660) has been tunneled to date.  In June, miners excavating the new tunnel from the Irvington Portal in Fremont met miners tunneling west from the Vargas Shaft.  This hole-through marked the completion of the Irvington-Vargas tunnel segment.  

In early August, workers will install a 102-inch diameter steel pipe at the Irvington Portal that will eventually carry drinking water from the Hetch Hetchy system to 2.6 million Bay Area customers.  The pipe, manufactured in California, is installed in 50-foot sections and welded together inside of the tunnel.   Pipeline installation is expected to take three months.

We look forward to seeing you at the open house!

Please call 866-973-1476 or email fzamora@sfwater.org for more information. You can also visit www.sfwater.org/nit or www.sfwater.org/sunolvalley for project updates.

From an Engineer’s Perspective

Annie Li gives us an exclusive, inside look at an engineer’s life at the SFPUC! As a senior civil engineer, Annie worked on the Alameda Siphon No. 4 Project in the Sunol Valley. The project entailed seismically-upgrading the pipeline, which extends approximately 3,000 feet from the Alameda East Portal across both the Calaveras Fault and Alameda Creek to the Alameda West Portal. Check out the video here to learn more about the project, some of SFPUC’s facilities and the road to becoming an engineer. 

Calaveras Dam Replacement Project Team Reaches Milestone

The Calaveras Dam Replacement Team has been working hard since early April, scraping away at existing earthen materials to excavate for the dam foundation.  This week, the team has reached 1 million cubic yards of materials excavated, which would cover an entire football field 60 stories high.  A total of 7 million cubic yards of excavation is required for the entire project.  Approximately 3.5 million cubic yards will go into the construction of the new dam.

Our team has been operating scrapers daily, excavating approximately 20,000 cubic yards per day.  The scrapers operate with hydraulics using a blade which then scrapes materials into a drop can, carrying an average of 28 cubic yards per trip.  These materials are then moved to disposal areas within the project site. 

The Calaveras Dam Replacement Project Team Celebrates the first

Million Cubic Yards of Earth Moved on July 13th

Construction Manager Jordan Sukut representing the general contractor Dragados USA/Flatiron/Sukut Construction congratulates the field team on the milestone

For more project info, contact us at our 24 hour answer line at (866) 973-1476 or email mle@sfwater.org

Keeping Thirst at Bay

How do you keep thirst at bay while implementing major improvements to several key water systems? In this month’s issue of CE News, you can learn just how the Sunol Valley regional projects team does it! Click here to learn about how the teams are working to seismically upgrade 70-year-old water infrastructure, how they successfully built a new water lifeline across the Calaveras Fault and how they handle water shutdowns during construction. 

Who’s Who Underground?

For almost two years we’ve discussed the ins and outs of tunneling. What is a road header? Do we still use canaries? Why do we have lasers? These are some of the questions that we’ve tried to answer since construction began nearly 2 years ago.

Here’s our next question: Who’s Who Underground?

For the answer to that question, we turn to the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association (ITA). A collaboration of 19 counties, ITA recently featured a New Irvington Tunnel inspector and geologist Rebecca Fusee in a web documentary promoting engineering careers in tunneling. The documentary features young underground engineering professionals working on complex projects around the world.     
Rebecca is featured at the 3:16 mark of the video. 

For this critical component of the Hetch Hetchy Water System, a tunnel inspector and geologist coordinates with miners throughout excavation. Rebecca and her colleagues document each step of excavation to ensure the contractor is working to design specifications. They also map the underground geology and analyze ground conditions. Over the course of construction, we’ll take a closer look at the men and women working in the new tunnel.