City Of Soledad Water Master Plan
In 2005, Schaaf & Wheeler produced a water system master plan for the City of Soledad that identified water demand usage rates, peaking factors, supply requirements, storage needs, transmission facilities and pump stations for near term development and ultimate development. The City's General Plan was used to define the development limits, land use and transportation corridors. The water master plan conceived of facilities required to meet the growth, set development fees, called for land to be reserved for public water service features and linked improvements with growth.
West Broadway Urban Village Water Resources Infrastructure Assessment
Client: Design, Community & Environment
Location: Seaside, CA
Schaaf & Wheeler worked with Design, Community & Environment (DC&E), an environmental design and planning firm, to prepare a Specific Plan for the West Broadway Urban Village project in the City of Seaside on the Monterey Peninsula. Schaaf & Wheeler assessed the water resources infrastructure of the Specific Plan area at a level of detail to prepare the project's Environmental Impact Report. Based on available documents and technical models, Schaaf & Wheeler analyzed the water, sewer, and storm drain capacities in relation to the potential development and design projections proposed by DC&E and the City. Schaaf & Wheeler then recommended any necessary infrastructure improvements to bring the water resources infrastructure to an acceptable level of service for the Project at buildout. The resulting Infrastructure Assessment and Infrastructure Implementation reports and accompanying conceptual figures were incorporated by DC&E into the project's Specific Plan.
As part of this Project, Schaaf & Wheeler also worked closely with the City to investigate future water supply options and prepare a formal Water Supply Assessment that would meet State criteria. The Water Supply Assessment summarized and analyzed the various water supply options being explored for the Monterey Peninsula with respect to the estimated demands of the Project and existing development. Although the Project's water demand increases represent only a relatively small fraction of the total water demands in Seaside and the surrounding areas, water supply for the Monterey Peninsula is highly regulated by various government agencies and historically difficult to increase. Therefore, the planners of any new project must carefully analyze how any increased water demands for the project would be met. In the Water Supply Assessment, it was important to estimate the project's water demands at certain time intervals to demonstrate how the demands could be met over time as future water supplies were projected to come online.
Montevina Pipeline
Client: San Jose Water Company
Location: Los Gatos, CA
In order to increase the capacity of the existing Montevina Water Treatment Plant, 2 miles of existing 36-inch pipe needed to be replaced with a 42-inch pipe. The initial phase of the project required evaluating alternate pipeline routes.
Issues with various routes include known landslides; crossing of a dam which would require review and approval from the Division of Dam Safety; steep and narrow access roads which already hold three different utilities; placement behind a spillway chute with potential conflicts with deadman anchors; parallel encroachment with State highway right-of-way; and limited access during construction. A portion of the pipeline route will be in an area with difficult geological conditions for construction of a buried pipeline. High-density boulders as large as 100 feet are expected to be encountered along the pipeline route. A portion of the 42-inch pipe is planned to be located above grade in order to reduce the construction schedule and to avoid the subgrade conditions. For the above grade portions the pipeline supports are designed for peak horizontal and vertical ground accelerations due to seismic events from the San Andreas Fault, which is less than one mile away. Special connections to the treatment plant are required to allow independent movement during a seismic event.
