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Project Description

Tunneling Progress Map and Photographic Tour
Community Information Updates
Community Meeting Summaries
Contact Us

Contracting Opportunities

 

Project Description

The San Vicente Pipeline projects are part of the Emergency Storage Project, a system of reservoirs, interconnected pipelines and pumping stations designed to make water available to the San Diego region in the event of an interruption in imported water deliveries.

The 11-mile San Vicente Pipeline will be a large-diameter pipeline connecting San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside to the Water Authority's Second Aqueduct west of Interstate 15. The pipeline will be built in a tunnel at a depth ranging from 50 to 550 feet underground and will not pass directly under any homes. Tunneling, rather than cut-and-cover trenching, will enable the Water Authority to build the pipeline with fewer impacts to land surfaces and the surrounding communities. To provide water during emergencies, the San Vicente Pipeline will function together with other Water Authority facilities and connecting pipelines near the reservoir to allow water to be distributed to agencies in the southern half of the county.

Construction of the San Vicente Pipeline projects is scheduled from 2005 to 2010.

San Vicente Pipeline Projects Fact Sheet

Tunneling Progress Map and Photographic Tour

San Vicente Pipeline construction activity can only be seen at four tunnel access points, Three tunneling machines are digging the majority of the 11-mile tunnel. One of the machines is excavating rock using a rotating cutterhead to break the rock into smaller pieces. The other two are using a digging arm equipped with a bucket or rotary cutter. A hard rock tunneling machine, called a main beam, was used for 1-1/2 miles of the tunnel. It completed half of this work from the San Vicente Portal in March 2007. It was then removed and reassembled in the West Shaft where it resumed hard rock tunneling to the east, which was completed in April 2008. Two digger shield machines are currently excavating westward from Slaughterhouse and Central shafts.



Photographic Tour

Please click here to view the online photographic tour, which illustrates construction activity taking place from west to east to construct the San Vicente Pipeline.

Community Information Updates

 

Community Meeting Summaries

Contact Us

For more information about the San Diego County Water Authority’s Emergency Storage Project or the San Vicente Pipeline Projects, please call toll free (877) 426-2010 or email espinfo@sdcwa.org. A representative from the project team will return your call within one business day.