Important Public Safety Project Breaks Ground in the Town of Sunol

With two fire engines as the backdrop, Alameda County elected officials, the Alameda County Fire Marshal, CAL FIRE Chief and community members gathered to celebrate the start of construction for Town of Sunol Fire Suppression System Project a little over a week ago. This is an important public safety project that will enhance fire protection capabilities and add 26 additional fire hydrants in Sunol.  The event focused on highlighting the partnerships and collaboration among the various stakeholders and local community to move this project into construction.  Alameda County Supervisor Valle also highlighted this project’s importance to ensure that the residents and businesses in the Town of Sunol are better protected during an emergency. Construction for this project is anticipated to be completed in summer 2015.

Key stakeholders and elected officials gathered to celebrate the start of construction for this important project. From left to right: Steve Ritchie (Assistant General Manager of Water Enterprise, SFPUC); Dawn Argula (Chief of Staff, Operations, Alameda County Supervisor District 1); Henry Baum (President, Niles Canyon Railway); Ario Ysit (Commissioner, Alameda County Fire Department); Alameda County Supervisor Valle (District 2); Rosemary Chang (Chair, Sunol Citizens Advisory Committee); and Barry Kaminsky (member, Sunol Citizens Advisory Committee)].

At the end of the ceremony, all the speakers waved orange construction flags to signal the backhoe to dig, officially breaking ground on the project.  

Calaveras Dam in the News

Just last week, we were able to share our story about recent fossil finds here at the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project.  As our crews are busy working on major spillway work and grouting operations for the new replacement dam, we were able to take a moment to highlight the interesting fossil finds out here.

Check out the story here from the San Jose Mercury News: Fossils Found at Calaveras Dam

The Calaveras Dam Replacement Project is the largest project of the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) to repair, replace and seismically upgrade key components of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.

For more information, please contact us at mle@sfwater.org

Construction for the Town of Sunol Fire Suppression Project is Starting

We are getting started on construction to improve the water distribution system and construct approximately 26 fire hydrants in the Town of Sunol. 

Please join us for a project groundbreaking on Friday, July 11, at 10:30 a.m. at the parking lot (intersection of Main Street, Kilkare Road, and Foothill Road) in Sunol, California.
We will enjoy light refreshments at the park afterwards.

Where is construction right now?

During the Weeks of July 7—July 21, 2014

Pipeline installation will occur at:

• Sunol Glen School
• Main Street up to the Railroad Crossing
• Bond Street

In August, we plan:

• Pipeline Installation on East Foothill Road to  the Kilkare Road intersection
• Jack and Bore crossing underneath Alameda County Railway at the intersection of Main Street, Kilkare Road, and Foothill Road.

o   We will cross under the railroads using a jack and bore method. The contractor will dig two large pits on each side of the crossing, insert pipeline casing into the pits and move the pipe beneath the railroad crossings. Each jack and bore crossing will take approximately 30 days.

What to Expect during Construction:

• One-lane traffic through construction zones during work hours. This will cause some delays, so please plan ahead.
• Possible Work Hours: 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Weekend work might be necessary, but we will provide advanced notice.
• Night work will be necessary during pipeline/tank shutdowns. We will minimize noise.  Some residents will have nighttime water outages with advance notice.
• Access to private driveways and around streets will be available at all times.

Stay in touch

Visit us  online here

Call us 24/7 at (866) 973-1476.
blauppe@sfwater.org
epowell@sfwater.org

See you around the Sunol Valley!

The WSIP Turns 10!

This year the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) turns 10! One of the largest infrastructure projects in the nation, the WSIP is repairing, replacing and upgrading our aging water infrastructure to ensure we can deliver water to customers following an earthquake. We’ve gotten a little nostalgic about how far we’ve come in the last 10 years, and we would like to share this video with you.



Now 80 percent complete, the WSIP has already provided increased reliability to the water supply for customers as a result of the completion of some of the program’s major projects. The program has created over 6 million construction craft hours to date, employing more than 11,000 workers since 2007. Nearly half of those workers live in our four-county service area.

An Ode to the Calaveras Spillways, old and new

Workers repair original Calaveras Dam spillway in 1939

What is a spillway?

A spillway is an important safety feature on a dam that impounds water behind it to prevent the dam from overtopping and suffering damage during a flood. The spillway is often an open chute or channel that allows water when it reaches a high level in the reservoir to safely bypass the dam and flow downstream without causing any damage to the dam.

History of the Calaveras Dam Spillway
The original spillway on Calaveras Dam was completed in 1925. In 1939, workers had to repair the original spillway after damage was caused by a flood occurred in the Winter of 1937-1938.

Spillway Work Today
Back in March work began on the new spillway. We have made much progress since then to construct the spillway, which will be 1550 feet long. Approximately 40,000 cubic yards of concrete, equivalent to one football field filled six feet deep, is being used to build the structure. All of the concrete is being supplied by our on-site concrete batch plant.
Because of its crucial function in dam safety, it’s important to make sure that the spillway structure stays intact during an earthquake on the nearby Calaveras Fault. So we are drilling anchors, a solid steel rod, about 25 feet into the rock around the spillway to provide support and prevent damage to the structure during any seismic activity.  We are installing 1,825 anchors, that’s a lot of anchors!  The spillway is expected to be completed in mid-2015.

View of the left wall of the new Calaveras Dam spillway. The purple anchor in the foreground will be encased in the concrete slab (foundation) being formed here. The exposed ends of the wall anchors will be encased in a block of concrete as part of the spillway wall.

Aerial view of new spillway taking shape at the left abutment.
Red arrows indicate the top of the spillway.

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

New Irvington Tunnel Project Open House on June 3rd

Construction on the New Irvington Tunnel is nearing completion! We anticipate commissioning the new tunnel sometime this Fall 2014. The new tunnel will provide a seismically-designed connection between water supplies from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Alameda Watershed, providing water to our 2.6 million customers. Work still lies ahead, with project completion expected in mid-2015. 

Join us on June 3, 2014 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm at Mission Coffee House (151 Washington Blvd., Fremont CA). The project team will be present to answer any of your questions and discuss what to expect post-construction for our Groundwater Management Plan participants. 

View from inside a section of the New Irvington Tunnel