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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

16th Street Water Works!


Well, it was a tough day on 16th Street for both the ARB construction guys and our own CSD water crew (and for residents and one of the schools too). There was an unmarked water pipe (where have we heard that story before?) a tad north of the El Moro Bike Path and one of the big machines hit it. I missed the first part, the fountain, but will show some later shots of the event. I only knew something had happened because I went to wash my hands, two drops of water came out, then nothing.

The CSD crew had already jumped into action, Frank was running up the street to the tanks to turn something off and our other CSD water crew guys were locating the shut off valves to shut the water off, of which there were more than one.

The ARB crew had to halt work until the water stopped off course, but some brave residents motored out of the mess with no problem.

Fortunately the drainage project at the bottom of 16th had been set up years ago and it worked to get the water across and under Paso Robles down to Walker Ditch and beyond.

Once the water stopped, the ARB crew was all ready to go with a new section of pipe and two couplings. So as one guy said, "we have an upgrade!"

The main things about this, no one was hurt, no homes flooded and the repair was done amazingly fast. Sure, too bad about the water loss, but now that the CSD is FINALLY out of bankruptcy, maybe some money will be available to do some capital improvement upgrades which have been on the back burner for years.

I had two in-depth conversations, one with with ARB's Paul Gallagher, Project Manager and one with HDR's Jim Brantley, Construction Manager. They both were on top of the problem immediately. They both have had experience with big projects like this, so this was not anything new to deal with, they had seen it all before. We are in good hands, no question, these guys and their crews are quite amazing and we are lucky to have them working for us!

Looking South

Drainage at Work

The Hidden Pipe

Looking North

All Fixed

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