Design and Construction of Camanche Water Transmission Pipeline Project

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (District) is a major metropolitan water district located near San Francisco, California. The District recently completed the design and construction for the Camanche Water Transmission Pipeline Project (Project), which is an element of the Camanche South Shore Water Treatment Plant (WTP) Replacement Project. It allows the Camanche South Shore WTP to supply water to the Camanche North Shore Recreation Area and to provide raw water from the Mokelumne Aqueducts to the new WTP. With the limited precipitation in 2014 and several years of drought in prior years, Camanche Reservoir was at its lowest water level in over 30 years, which shortened the length of the submerged pipeline from 4,700 feet to 1,200 feet. This condition allowed the majority of the cross-lake pipeline to be constructed in the lakebed with direct burial construction versus construction over water (submerged). The low water conditions allowed for a better pipeline construction at a significant cost savings for the District. This paper focuses on the float-and-sink pipeline design and construction.