Water Authority Earns Regional Awards for Construction Projects
May 24, 2018
The regional chapter of the American Public Works Association today conferred two Project of the Year awards on the San Diego County Water Authority for a pipeline upgrade in Scripps Ranch and a rebuilt pump station near Miramar Reservoir, both of which will help ensure reliable water deliveries across the San Diego region.
“We take great pride in developing and maintaining world-class water infrastructure to support our economy and quality of life, and these projects highlight our ability to do just that in a way that will benefit the region for decades,” said Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority’s Board of Directors.
The Water Authority has a long history of construction projects honored by the APWA and other professional organizations, including the All-American Canal Lining Project and the Emergency & Carryover Storage Project, both of which won national or international honors.
The two projects honored this year by the San Diego & Imperial Counties Chapter of the APWA will now be considered for a national Outstanding Project of the Year award this fall. Based in Kansas City, Mo., the association has a worldwide membership of more than 30,000 that includes personnel from local, state, and federal agencies, along with private-sector employees who provide products and services for public works projects.
The $4.4-million Miramar Pump Station Rehabilitation project involved a makeover of the 38-year-old facility. The pump station is designed – in conjunction with the Emergency & Carryover Storage Project – to provide ample supplies of water to member agencies throughout the region in the event of an earthquake or other emergency. Because of its age, much of the station’s equipment was either obsolete or was no longer supported by the original manufacturers when the retrofit project started in January 2016.
The renovation, completed in April of 2017, included the installation of new pumps, motors, valves, piping, and electrical and computer controls systems. The building itself also was upgraded because it was not in compliance with current seismic standards. The Miramar Pump Station is owned and operated by the Water Authority, but the water comes from the City of San Diego’s Miramar Water Treatment Plant. That meant the construction project required substantial interagency coordination.
The Nob Hill Improvements Project, completed in June 2017, involved replacing and repositioning pipelines in the Nob Hill neighborhood of Scripps Ranch to eliminate the possibility of pressure spikes that could have caused a catastrophic failure of the water delivery system. The project involved replacing a pair of 72-inch pipelines with a single 96-inch pipeline installed in a nearly 600-foot-long tunnel.
The APWA commended the Water Authority for a comprehensive outreach program that engaged project neighbors and kept community groups such as Scripps Ranch Planning Group and the Nob Hill and Miro Ravel homeowner associations up to speed on project designs and construction. In addition, 18-foot-high sound walls were built by the Water Authority to buffer the neighborhood from construction noise and lights used for nighttime work. The Water Authority also installed a new access road to minimize construction vehicle traffic on the communities’ private roads.
For more information about Water Authority construction projects, go to www.sdcwa.org/construction-projects.