Contact: Susan Siravo
Office: (408) 265-2607, ext. 2290
Mobile: (408) 398-0754
September 23, 2009
SAN JOSE – On Friday, Sept. 25, the Santa Clara Valley Water District will accept two awards from the San Francisco Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The Lenihan Dam Outlet Modifications Project and the Pajaro Basin Freshwater Wetland Project are each set to receive “Project of the Year” awards in their respective categories. The ASCE, a professional organization representing more than 146,000 civil engineers, will present the awards at a banquet on Friday, September 25.
“The water district is honored to be receiving these awards and is proud to be recognized by such a respected organization,” said Board Chair Sig Sanchez. “Our staff has worked diligently on each of these projects and it’s gratifying to have their efforts acknowledged in this manner.”
With a total project cost of approximately $50 million, the Lenihan Dam Outlet Modifications Project received the Project of the Year award in the “Large Projects” category. The purpose of the project was to construct a new outlet for the Lenihan Dam at Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos, California, to improve the operational abilities of the current outlet facility. The modified outlet consists of a 54 inch concrete lined steel pipe located inside of an approximately 2,000 foot long maintenance tunnel that runs through the eastern abutment of Lenihan Dam in St. Joseph’s Hill. The project also included a sloping, multi-port intake structure and a shaft located in Lexington Reservoir and an outlet structure located adjacent to Los Gatos Creek.
While any construction project has inherent dangers and risks, Lenihan also included a large amount of underground and confined space work with the tunnel excavation and the abandonment of the existing outlet pipe. It is a testament to the way this construction site was run that with more than 155,000 hours worked there were no incidences that resulted in a missed work day. Thanks to all parties involved, especially our contractor Flatiron Construction Inc., this project was completed safely, under budget and on schedule.
The Pajaro Basin Freshwater Wetland Project received the Project of the Year award in the “Environmental” category. Though this project was on a much smaller scale (total project cost of $4.7 million), it was critical to partly fulfilling the water district’s mitigation obligations for the Multi-year Stream Maintenance Program.
The objective of the Pajaro Basin Freshwater Wetland Project was to restore 9.6 acres of freshwater wetland habitat to compensate for impacts from routine stream maintenance. The design of the wetland relied on naturally occurring, unmanaged sources of water and requires no active water management. This means that the site will be able to sustain itself on a long-term basis without human intervention.
The project site is situated at the southernmost portion of the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Carnadero Preserve which is located about two miles south of Gilroy in Santa Clara County. This setting provides an uninterrupted transition between the wetland and existing willow riparian forest and riverine habitats of the adjacent streams.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District manages water resources and provides stewardship for the county’s five watersheds, including 10 reservoirs, hundreds of miles of streams and groundwater basins. The water district also provides flood protection throughout Santa Clara County.