City Of Oxnard Awards Affholder $33.3 Million Microtunneling Contract To Construct Nearly Five Miles Of New Trunk Sewers
The new sewers are part of a $114 million program to increase sewer capacity in fast-growing Oxnard
Oxnard, CA - The City of Oxnard has awarded Affholder, Inc. a $33.3 million contract to construct nearly five miles of new trunk sewers to serve the fast-growing city and surrounding Ventura County.
Affholder's contract calls for the company to use microtunneling techniques to construct the two new sewer segments, both of which will eventually connect to the planned $39 million Oxnard Waste Water Treatment Plant Headworks facility.
"These two tunnels are important pieces of a new sewer system we're putting in place to increase our capacity and to accommodate the growth taking place in our community," explains Mark Norris, Wastewater Superintendent for Oxnard's Public Works Department and the project manager. "There are thousands of new homes being constructed in River Park, Sea Bridge, El Rio and elsewhere, many of which are now on septic tanks. Our long-term goal is to get them and other new development tied into the city's sewer system, while improving service to existing parts of the city as well."
In May, Affholder will begin construction of the Redwood Trunk Segment, a nearly three-mile long, 60-inch-diameter trunk sewer that will begin at J-Street near Hueneme Road, and travel to Redwood Street, where it will run west to Ventura Road. There, the sewer will turn north and run to Hemlock Street.
Under the same contract, Affholder will also construct the Ventura Trunk segment, a nearly two-mile-long, 42-inch diameter sewer that will connect to the Redwood Trunk and run along Ventura Road to the north side of Doris Avenue.
Two additional trunk sewer segments will be constructed as part of the larger $114 million program. Contract awards on those segments have not been announced.
It will take Affholder crews of 28 to 40 persons about 18 months to microtunnel the Redwood and Ventura trunk segments, according to Bob Stier, area manager for Affholder. Given the sandy silt they are working in, Stier expects the crews to move relatively quickly, mining an average of 50 to 80 feet of tunnel each day.
Similar in many ways to traditional tunneling, microtunneling is a method of installing medium-diameter pipes using a remote-controlled tunnel boring machine. Microtunneling makes it possible to carve out a tunnel and install a new pipe in a nearly simultaneous process – without requiring workers to actually go the 30 feet below ground where the work is being performed.
The microtunneling process is designed to be as minimally disruptive to the people living and working nearby as possible, according to Stier. "It's much less disruptive to construct access pits every 900 hundred feet where the tunnel boring equipment will be inserted and retrieved, than to dig up the streets and install new pipe using more traditional open cut methods.
Because the sewers are being installed 25 to 30 feet below the surface – and below the water table – microtunneling is also a safer, less expensive approach," says Stier.
Other key members of the project team include Malcolm Pirnie, the designer of the new headworks facility, and its project manager, Libby Tortorici; and Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, the designer of the Redwood Trunk and Ventura Trunk segments, and its project manager, Bill Yates.
Affholder, Inc., a subsidiary of Insituform Technologies, Inc., uses tunneling methods to perform trenchless installations of new pipelines throughout North America. Additional information about the company can be obtained at www.insituform.com.
Source: Affholder, Inc.