Committee advances SFPUC'led Irvington tunnel amendment and major Bay Division and San Joaquin pipeline funding and CEQA actions

The Budget and Finance Committee advanced multiple San Francisco Public Utilities Commission items that together move large pieces of the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) forward, including a contract amendment for the Irvington Tunnel design and the release of construction funds and CEQA findings for a major Bay Division pipeline upgrade and the San Joaquin pipeline system.

Harlan Kelly, assistant general manager for infrastructure at the SFPUC, introduced an amendment to a professional services agreement with URS Corporation to increase the contract by $3,900,000 to a total of $13,898,561 and extend the term by one year. Dan Wade, SFPUC project manager, told supervisors geotechnical investigations uncovered previously unmapped fault/shear zones that required redesign and a method change: "The discovery of these shear zones ... the decision was made midway through the design to change from [a tunnel boring machine] to a more conventional mining technique," he said, describing road headers, drilling, and controlled blasting as the revised approach.

SFPUC staff also sought release of $470,088,574 from reserves to fund the Bay Division pipeline reliability upgrade, a multi-contract program that includes a five-mile tunnel under San Francisco Bay and long pipeline segments in the East Bay and Peninsula. "The proposed Bay Division pipeline number 5 is ... a fifth pipeline," Johanna Wong, senior project manager, said, adding that design changes reduced habitat impacts and that the tunnel option avoids direct Bay habitat disturbance.

Budget analyst Harvey Rose advised the committee to request post-award reporting on contractors and bid amounts once competitive bidding concludes. The committee discussed quarterly reporting commitments; SFPUC agreed to provide contract-award letters and quarterly updates tracking bids, awards and cost trends.

On Item 9, SFPUC managers presented the San Joaquin Pipeline System Project CEQA findings; staff said project-specific impacts (wetland and grassland habitat, special-status species, cultural resources, traffic, air and noise) can be mitigated under the proposed monitoring program, but that program-wide water-supply benefits give rise to some program-level, partially unmitigable impacts. The committee voted to forward all WSIP-related items to the full board with recommendation and asked PUC to supply post-bid award information and quarterly cost reports.