Amador County – Six work crews converged on Broad Street in Sutter Creek last week to move utilities for an upcoming storm drain diversion pipeline project to be built by the city.
Pacific Gas & Electric had two crews, one working on moving power lines and poles, and another moving gas lines buried under the asphalt on Broad Street. PG&E moved two power poles at the corner of Broad and Eureka streets and also had to replace some bad lines further down Broad Street.
Amador Water Agency had a crew digging up a main on Friday in the middle of the intersection of Randolph and Broad streets, and was preparing to make a connection for a main crossing below Broad Street that they installed on Thursday, April 5.
AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said the crews were all at the site together earlier in the week as they moved utilities so the contractor for Sutter Creek can carry out its installation of a new sewer drain, main and pipelines.
Mancebo said AWA knew about the project. The planned and budgeted relocation of the facilities had a $100,000 budget for the work. They are relocating service connections and fire hydrants to clear out an area for the storm drain to go. They have to dig down about 8 feet in some places to make room for the drain, and there are lots of utility lines to dig around. Mancebo said they have a deadline to be done by the beginning of May and in the next 30 days, AWA’s crew will be pretty busy to meet deadline.
Mancebo said they are going to be pushing to make the deadline and may be pulling people off construction to do the work. They have a lot of pipes to dig around and cannot dig with backhoe. He said it’s very slow going, and telephone poles are right up next to where they are digging.
AWA crews built crossings at several intersections, and had to dig about 8 feet deep to make the crossings, while their main was relatively shallow.
AWA and PG&E both have the goal to complete their gas and water line moves by May 1, so the city can do its work during summer school break. The project sits down the road from Sutter Creek Elementary.
Sutter Creek City Council in March approved a contract with Vinciguerra Construction for $658,000 for the Broad Street Storm Drain Diversion Project. The project includes 1,050 linear feet of 42-inch diameter storm drainage pipes, and 1,750 cubic yards of earth estimated to be moved in trenching. Sutter Creek received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the project. Mancebo said AWA did not receive any FEMA or Cal-EMA funding for moving their utilities.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
