Hydro Generation & Water Conveyance

The project is locat­ed along the moun­tain­side above Kaweah Pow­er­house No. 1. Phase I includ­ed the demo­li­tion and replace­ment of 2,796 lin­ear feet (LF) of aging flume – includ­ing Lennon sheet sec­tions, tim­ber bent sub­struc­ture, and select foot­ings – at the ter­mi­nal end of the con­veyance facil­i­ty. Phase 2 was sim­i­lar to Phase 1 but includ­ed two sep­a­rate sites approx­i­mate­ly two miles apart and com­prised 2,726 LF and 519 LF, respec­tive­ly, with over 23,500 man­hours worked in less than a 4-month peri­od. The Phase 2 work also required the instal­la­tion of a bypass sys­tem to allow the own­er to meet local water user deliv­ery requirements.

Due to the iso­lat­ed loca­tion, the project required over 570 hours of heli­copter sup­port to remove mate­ri­als from the demo­li­tion oper­a­tion and bring in new mate­ri­als and equip­ment. Most of the heli­copter work involved pre­ci­sion fly­ing to place con­crete for foot­ings and posi­tion bent sec­tions onto 4-foot square pads. Syblon Reid spe­cial­izes in this type of work and has many years of expe­ri­ence on such projects.

Perched on steep ter­rain, the project also required crews to work from ropes and rap­pel ver­ti­cal rock faces to install the new foot­ings and bent sections.