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.

Nighttime Crews Working Away on the New Spillway for Calaveras Dam

What are construction crews doing at 2 a.m. at the Calaveras Dam? They are working in the pre-dawn hours to mix and place concrete for the new spillway. Over 40,000 cubic yards of concrete will be placed into the new 1550 ft concrete spillway for the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project. Crews have to work in the early hours to ensure the concrete maintains a precise temperature to cure and reach its optimum strength. We are approximately 30% complete with the concrete spillway work.

Read more about the spillway here. The projected completion for the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project is late 2018.

 Crews work on placing concrete for the slabs of the new spillway

Crews work early hours placing concrete on the new spillway. All concrete is mixed on-site at our batch plant reducing truck deliveries on public roads.

Sunrise at Calaveras Reservoir

I hope this blog post finds you safe, warm, and dry during this storm!

We thought you might like to take your mind of the rains and wind outside. 

So, for your viewing pleasure, we are happy to present, Calaveras Reservoir at Sunrise, November 2014, courtesy of watershed keeper Pat Jones.

Our Watershed Keepers patrol the 36,000 acres of land the SFPUC owns in the Southern Alameda Creek Watershed in every kind of weather.

They also fight fires, respond to all sorts of calls, help maintain the watershed, and when we are lucky, share the photos they take while going about their duties. We will be posting more of Pat's photos, so keep an eye out!

See you around Sunol Valley!