Daylight Savings: San Antonio Reservoir at Dawn

Losing that hour of sleep for daylight savings last weekend was brutal.

SFPUC Watershed Keeper Pat Jones reminded us today of one small side benefit: he is out on his rounds before the sun comes up.

He shared this gorgeous photo of the SFPUC's San Antonio Reservoir in the Alameda Creek Watershed at dawn. 









San Antonio, like all of our reservoirs, is a protected, managed watershed that supports many rare and endangered plants and animals. No humans, though, with the notable exception of Pat.

See you around Sunol Valley!

The New Irvington Tunnel is officially in service!

Our teams are excited to announce that the New Irvington Tunnel is officially in service carrying drinking water to our 2.6 million Bay Area customers.

This is a major milestone since the completion of the New Irvington Tunnel Project completes the last three tunnels in the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP), creating a critical water lifeline able to withstand earthquakes on the Hayward, Calaveras, and San Andreas faults.

Located between the Sunol Valley and Fremont, the new seismically-designed tunnel is the last of three tunnels making up this “water lifeline” around the Bay.  The project is part of the agency’s $4.8 billion Water System Improvement Program.

The tunnel was constructed by the joint venture of Southland Tutor Perini who began tunneling in March 2011. It was constructed using conventional mining techniques from four separate headings using road headers and controlled detonation to break up the hard rock.

Tunnel Facts:

• Tunnel Length: 18,660 feet or 3.5 miles
• Location: Parallel to the existing tunnel between Sunol Valley and the City of Fremont 
• Depth: Between 30 feet and 700 feet underground
• Finished internal diameter: 8.5 feet
• More than 7.8 million pounds injected into the tunnel
• The New Irvington Tunnel will carry approximately 120 million gallons of water a day on average during normal operating conditions when both tunnels are in service.
• The maximum amount of water the tunnel can transport per day: approximately 300 million gallons 
• This project provided approximately 42% of total labor hours to SFPUC service territory residents, and nearly half (48%) of total apprentice hours to SFPUC service territory apprentices ensuring our local workers and local residents were able to participate in this unique, once-in-a-lifetime construction opportunity.

What Happens Next?

Now that the tunnel is in service, the construction team will begin restoration of the above ground facilities. The SFPUC will take the existing tunnel out of service for inspection in early March 2015. The entire New Irvington Tunnel Project will be complete in Fall 2015.

1933: Historic photo of  worker at Irvington Portal spherical manifold

Today: New Irvington Tunnel worker at new dishhead at Irvington Portal

Last of the Pipe Installed at New Irvington Tunnel

The crews have reached a major milestone and installed the last of the pipe for the New Irvington Tunnel.  A 35 ft section of steel pipe was prepped and mortar lined at the surface before being lowered into the Vargas Shaft. This officially completes the entire 3.5 mile water transmission tunnel.  Final steps are being made the next week to disinfect the tunnel and bring it into service to provide a seismically designed connection to provide water to our 2.6 million Bay Area customers. 

Construction Advisory: New Irvington Tunnel Neighbors

We are preparing to bring the New Irvington Tunnel into service!
In order to do so, our crews need to fill and disinfect the tunnel and connecting pipelines in preparation for it to carry drinking water. Disinfection is a 24/7 process, and therefore, you will notice nighttime work at the Irvington Portal. Here’s more information:

Completion of Tunnel Cleaning and Installation of Dish-head
The Contractor will need to work inside the tunnel during night hours on Friday, Feb 13^th. They will also install the dish-heads starting this weekend inside the new portal structure located off Mission Blvd. in the City of Fremont.

Disinfection/ Flushing activities start week of February 16, 2015 
Beginning on Tuesday, Feb 17^th we will pump highly chlorinated water through the tunnel to disinfect it. Crews will be running pumps 24 hours a day and will be flushing the pipe for an estimated 5 to 7 days. Adjacent neighbors at Irvington Portal may hear the operations of the equipment. Passersby will notice lights and increased activity in the area. We will be installing sound blankets on the pipes to help minimize the water injection noise located near Mission Blvd entrance.

Future Work: Restoration work at Irvington Portal

After the tunnel is in service, the next step will be to construct a concrete structure around the existing tunnel portal up by the valve houses. Once the major construction work is completed, the Contractor will remove the remaining sound barrier walls. We will give the neighborhood advance notice before taking down the sound walls. Final grading, paving and installation of the wrought iron fence will be installed at the Mission Boulevard entrance by this summer.

Project Background

The New Irvington Tunnel Project is part of the $4.8 billion Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) to repair, replace, and upgrade our system’s aging pipelines, tunnels, and dams. The new 3.5 mile long tunnel will provide a seismically-designed connection between water supplies from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Alameda Watershed to our Bay Area water distribution systems.  We anticipate being completely done in fall 2015. 

Questions / Concerns?

We greatly appreciate your patience. Contact us with any questions by calling our 24 hour answer line at 866-973-1476 or emailing mle@sfwater.org

The Final Stretch: Mortar Lining completed for the New Irvington Tunnel

This week the construction crews completed the final stages of mortar lining in the tunnel. Mortar lining is one of the final stages of constructing a water tunnel before we bring it into service.  

Our workers used specialized equipment that sprays cement on the pipe’s interior to prevent corrosion of the steel pipe and prepare it for water conveyance. This completes a major milestone for the tunnel. The tunnel is anticipated to be in service by the end of this month and will soon deliver water to our 2.6 million customers. We are definitely getting excited for the final stretch!

Construction Update for the Town of Sunol Fire Suppression Project

We are pleased to announce that the fire hydrants installed within the Town of Sunol are live! The new water main that serves these hydrants is full of water, and should a fire occur within the Town, fire fighters can now access water through these hydrants. The contractor will unwrap the hydrants momentarily. We are not finished with the entire project, yet. There are a few more items left to be done.

Here's what to expect over the next couple of weeks:

Bollard Installation 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. These bollards will conform with Alameda County Fire Specifications. Installation is scheduled to begin this week and should take a week or so to complete.

Sidewalk Restoration at SFPUC Corporation Yard
We will be restoring the sidewalk directly adjacent to the SFPUC-owned corporation yard at the corner of Main and Bond Streets next two weeks as well.

Pavement Restoration
Once all the construction work within town is complete, we will work with Alameda County inspectors to repair street structural damage caused by construction and slurry seal Main Street. Spot repair of pavement damage will happen at the end of February. If you notice a damaged section of payment that occurred because of construction of the project, please notify us at blauppe@sfwater.org. We would appreciate hearing back by Monday, February 23rd.

Slurry Seal of Main Street will happen in warmer weather - currently planned for this spring.

Pipeline Connection Work at the intersection of Kilkare / Main and Foothill Roads It is possible that crews will modify the pipeline connections at the intersection of Kilkare / Main, and Foothill Roads to further optimize the fire hydrant system. Additional details will be forthcoming if this comes to fruition.

Storage Tanks
Installation of the first of the two new replacement tanks on Tank Hill continues. Once the first new water storage tank on Tank Hill is placed in service (Spring 2015), the remaining pair of old, smaller water tanks will be demolished, and construction will start on the second replacement tank. Construction on Tank Hill will continue through summer of 2015.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns.
24-hour Answering Line: (866) 973-1476 or epowell@sfwater.org or blauppe@sfwater.org.

Thank you for your patience!

WSIP Recognizes Construction Project Teams for 7 Million Safe Work Hours

The construction teams working on Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) projects recently achieved a huge and important milestone. Between April 2009 and October 2014, these project teams performed 7 million hours of work on major construction projects, without a single major injury or incident. SFPUC representatives acknowledged this with a formal presentation of a certificate to the active construction management and contractor teams in December.

The WSIP projects have significantly lower rates of recordable injuries and lost work time compared to the national industry averages. The safety successes are a result of a robust safety program that has been embraced by the construction management teams as well as the project contractors. This milestone is evidence of the project teams’ outstanding commitment to the Think Safety, Work Safely approach, ensuring the program’s construction sites are safe places to work.

New Irvington Tunnel Project: SFPUC Team and Southland/Tutor Perini

Calaveras Dam Replacement Project: SFPUC Team and Dragados USA/Flatiron/Sukut Construction, Inc.