Alameda County Residents Contribute to 10 Years of WSIP Success

It seems like only yesterday the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission launched the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP). However, April marked the 10-year anniversary of WSIP, and, perhaps it seems like time has flown by since we’ve been busy at work!!  Since the start, 11,000 workers have been employed by the program.

Nearly six million craft hours have been completed on the program to date, which includes 725,000 apprenticeship hours.  Plus, San Francisco and service-area residents have worked 50 percent of those craft hours. In fact, Alameda County residents are responsible for the largest percentage of total hours worked on WSIP out of all the participating counties!

Thanks in part to the hard work of Alameda County residents, the WSIP is now 80 percent complete. The WSIP will ensure the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves 2.6 million customers in the Bay Area, will be able to withstand a major earthquake or drought and continue to deliver water to customers.

                       A crew member upgrades the San Antonio Pump Station, a key WSIP project now complete.

Sunol Glen School Students Celebrate Earth Week with Us!

What do ancient shark teeth, wasps nests, and owl pellets have in common? All were on display last week at the Sunol Glen School’s Earth Day Science celebration last week.  We were lucky enough to have been invited to participate, along with other local groups and leaders.  The kids, grades Kindergarten through eighth grade, learned about the importance of building a seismically upgraded replacement dam at the Calaveras Reservoir. Our project Geologist Bradley Erskine showed some fascinating fossils found at the Calaveras site during construction. The biggest hit with the students by far was a prehistoric shark tooth possibly from a Megladon, dating at approximately 20 million years old.  We had a great time answering questions about how water gets to your tap and the importance of the Water System Improvement Program to future generations.

Having met the leaders of tomorrow at Sunol Glen School, we know the future is in good hands! Sunol Glen Schools students proved themselves to be inquisitive and curious scientists at Earth Day on May 2^nd. 

Geologist Bradley Erskine and Natural Resources staffer Amy Dawson share fossil finds from Calaveras Dam to the Sunol Glen School students

Sample fossils of prehistoric shark teeth dating over 20 million years old

Critters, Kids and Parents oh my!! All Tested their WSIP Facts at the Sunol Wildflower Festival

Community members and even an enthusiastic furry friend joined the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) team to learn about water conservation, local wildlife and the Sunol Valley Watershed at the Sunol Wildflower Festival earlier this month. Visitors to our booth tested their knowledge of WSIP facts by spinning the prize wheel to with fun prizes. In case you missed the Festival, here are a couple of the most challenging questions:
· How many gallons of water does the washing machine use? 55 gallons
· Why would we have injected more than 8 million pounds of cement grout into the New Irvington Tunnel during construction? To seal the tunnel heading off from groundwater intrusion

A special thank you to our partners at the East Bay Regional Park District and Alameda Creek Alliance for hosting this wonderful event.

Our furriest of friends learned about WSIP construction projects in Sunol Valley

WSIP staff quizzed visitors on water topics with the WSIP prize wheel.

Calaveras Dam Welcomes the US Society on Dams Conference

It is fitting that the SFPUC helped host the annual meeting of the United States Society on Dams (USSD) this last week in the same month as the anniversary of the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire. The group finished their week of technical sessions and presentations on dam safety in extreme events with a field tour of a dam in construction.

That would be our very own Calaveras Dam Replacement Project. The project will construct a new seismically designed earth and rock fill dam right next to the existing, which will be able to withstand the maximum credible earthquake on the Calaveras fault.

The USSD Conference attendees peppered the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project Team with questions.  We appreciate that the SFPUC project team members, the Construction Management team from Black & Veatch, Design team from URS, and the contractor Dragados USA/Flatiron/Sukut Construction shared their experiences with their industry colleagues. 

Then the Calaveras Team returned to the current work at hand, which is continuing the major excavation work on the new spillway and stilling basin, as well as mechanical and electrical improvements to the new intake Tower.

When complete in late 2018, the replacement dam will enable us to bring the Calaveras Reservoir back to historic capacity, storing approximately half of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System’s local Bay area water supply.

This somber anniversary for the 1906 Great Earthquake reminds us to ensure our families are prepared for the next big earthquake. Visit 72hours.org, or http://www.redcross.org/ca/san-francisco/ to learn more. 

 SFPUC Project Manager Susan Hou discusses the critical upgrades to the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System

Project Manager Alberto Benlloch from the joint venture of Dragados USA/Flatiron/Sukut Construction points out to the tour the excavation work to-date of over 4 million cubic yards of material

Aerial view taken on March 23, 2014

Join us at the Sunol Wildflower Festival this Saturday!!

The Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) prize wheel is back and you only have a few more days to sharpen your knowledge before you spin the wheel at the 2014 Sunol Wildflower Festival. This year’s questions range from fun facts about your local slimy, slithery friends to where your water comes from and if you know the answer, there are fun prizes to win!

We look forward to seeing you at the eleventh annual spring Sunol Wildflower Festival this Saturday, April 12, 2014 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sunol Regional Wilderness. In addition to stopping by our booth, make sure to check out the scheduled nature hikes, crafts, live music and nature activities. The festival is put on by the East Bay Regional Park District, and co-sponsored this year by the Alameda Creek Alliance. For more information about this festival, visit their website www.ebparks.org.

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.