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Politics & Government

Construction Delayed in Water Pipeline Replacement Project

The Crystal Springs Pipeline No. 2 Replacement Project was set to for completion in September but has been pushed back to mid-October.

Due to unexpected construction delays, the South San Francisco portion of the Crystal Springs Pipeline No. 2 Replacement Project has extended its completion date. The construction project, which began in South City in early July, was set for completion in September but has since been pushed back to mid-October.

“There’s not a whole lot the city can do about the fact the contractor has already gotten a month behind,” said Terry White, director of Public Works.

Alison Kastama, regional communication liaison for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on the project, said delays have only slightly interrupted construction and will not cause severe delays.

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Construction is currently taking place along Spruce Avenue at Beech Avenue and along Randolph Avenue at Pecks Lane.

The contractor for the project, Ranger Pipelines, Inc., had difficulties from the very beginning, White said.

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There was in a delay in the actual manufacturing of the pipes before construction could begin.

“Soil conditions and general construction has been slow going,” White said. “Spruce Avenue recently has been really slow. They’ve lost almost a week’s worth of work there just because of soil conditions.”

Soil conditions have made digging on Spruce Avenue harder than expected, he said, but issues such as these are not unheard of in general construction projects.

“We have enough experience to know that kind of thing is expected,” White said.

Issues with ground water have also slowed down construction slightly.

White said that the city of South San Francisco cannot speed up the process but can only provide comments and recommendations to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the entire project.

“They’ve been pretty good about responding,” White said.

According to Kastama, construction on the pipeline is a linear progression.

"We take out an old piece and put in a new piece," she said. "It progresses by 40 to 50 foot segments."

Construction in South San Francisco is characterized as trench work in which the contractors open up 80 to 100 feet of a street in order to replace the older pipeline.

Trench work is set to be completed Monday, said Daniel Jaimes of the SFPUC. The project will then begin underground pipeline wielding and water testing until early October.

White said he thinks the project may have been more successful if they started construction at two separate locations.

“If this were my project, I might tell them to bring more pieces of equipment to other sites,” he said.

But given the tight spaces that the contractor must work in, White said he understands their decision to work complete one site at a time.

Costs for the extended completion date will not cause additional costs to the city but to the SFPUC.

“Any additional costs on our end, they pay for all of that,” White said. “We do get reimbursed for it.”

Though White said he is certainly not happy with the delays, he praised the project coordinators for keeping the public well informed through a blog detailing the current construction plans and what will happen in the future.

Although community members of the neighborhoods under construction have not issued serious complaints with the city, White said that there is always some animosity when a contractor begins work near homes.

“Any time you restrict access to someone’s house, people do not like that,” White said.

Until construction is complete, the city and the SFPUC will continue to keep the pressure on contractors to complete construction as soon as possible.

“The contractors will be penalized,” White said. “The contractor certainly has all the financial initiative they need to go as fast as they can.”

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