Mikey Likes It

Meet Mikey.  Mikey likes fog, food trucks and Buster Posey…Go Giants! Most of all Mikey likes the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.  Mikey drinks water from the tap instead of buying bottled water.  Mikey likes to conserve water so he always turns off the faucet when he brushes his teeth. Mikey also likes the important work being done to repair, replace and improve the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.

Mikey learned all about the New Irvington Tunnel - a key project that is part of that effort -- from Project Manager David Tsztoo and Construction Manager Dan McMaster. David and Dan have forty-two years of combined experience building tunnels. They showed Mikey how the road headers dig the tunnel.  Mikey also saw the large diameter steel pipe that will eventually line the tunnel and carry the water he likes so much to his home.

David and Dan have been invited to take part in a prestigious information and technology exchange on designing and constructing large diameter tunnels abroad. Since they are on their own time, they invited Mikey to join them.  Together they will tour tunnel projects and tunnel equipment manufacturing facilities in France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. They will bring back their newly acquired knowledge to benefit the New Irvington Tunnel Project and the Water System Improvement Program.

Follow David, Dan and Mikey @WSIPintheNews or search #MikeyLikesIt to see all of the amazing tunnel projects they will learn about and explore over the next couple of weeks.  Mikey and the NIT team will share pictures on our blog at www.sfwater.org/sunolvalley.

Ciao!

Post #2: David, Dan and Mikey: Arrival in Zurich

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!

Digging and Trenching

What is a concrete cut-off trench?

We just keep on digging out here at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project site.  After excavating our first million cubic yards of materials in July, we have now completed our work on the first portion of the concrete cut-off trench. 

Why is it necessary?

The new Calaveras Dam will be an earth and rock fill dam, which naturally leaks water.  The concrete cut-off trench is an underground cement barrier located directly beneath the dam’s foundation. Groundwater will seep underneath the dam and the concrete cut-off trench will help slow the water flow to maintain the stability of the dam foundation.

How big is it?

Our workers excavated the trench and then filled it with approximately 300 yards of concrete.  The 30-inch wide trench is ten feet deep. When it’s finished it will be approximately 860 feet long. 

What’s next for the control of groundwater leakage?

We will continue work on the cut-off trench and install the grout curtain… and THAT we will share more with you later…

Calaveras Dam workers excavating with a trencher

View of Concrete-cut off trench work

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

 

Sunol Valley Projects Open House

Please join us for our late summer Sunol Valley Projects Open House!

We would love to show you our progress on projects in and around the Sunol Valley, including water system upgrades, watershed environmental improvements, and the proposed design of the Watershed Center at the Sunol Temple to name a few.  We hope to see you there!

When: Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Time: 4:30 p.m.  to 6:30 p.m.
Where: Sunol Community Park @ Main Street
What: Enjoy light refreshments and see photos and updates of ongoing SFPUC work in Sunol Valley.

For more information, please call 925.493.4535 or RSVP by emailing mle@sfwater.org.

Sights & Sounds

What does lifting, moving and welding 50-foot sections of 102-inch (8 ½ foot) steel pipe look and sound like?  Check out the sights and sounds of pipeline installation at the Irvington Portal:

A total 18,660 feet of welded steel pipe will be installed in the new tunnel.  The pipes are the final liner of the New Irvington Tunnel, through which the pristine drinking water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir will flow to the San Francisco Bay Area.  

We have Reached the Dam Foundation.

We continue digging away here at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project. In July we reached a milestone of excavating the first million cubic yards of earthen material. This week we have reached another important place---the foundation of the dam. The foundation of the new dam will be on bedrock and is located almost 225 feet below the top of the existing dam. The existing dam still holds back the Calaveras reservoir and, as expected, we encounter some minor seepage at the bottom that is controlled by pumping to our storm water treatment system. This is just the first phase of excavation work on the east side of the dam foundation. The west side of the dam foundation will be done later as we prepare that surface for the installation of the new dam’s spillway. It is important to note that this significant construction project is taking place while the Calaveras reservoir remains in service as an important source of drinking water for our Bay Area customers.

View of excavated area of dam foundation

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

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!