For the past four years, the
Sacramento County Water Agency (SCWA) has been working to improve the water system in the Arden Area. The Arden Service Area Pipe and Meter Installation Project is installing approximately 38 miles of new distribution pipelines, and nearly 3000 new water meters.
A 2004 State mandate triggered this multi-phased infrastructure project which impacts one of the oldest neighborhoods in the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County. The overall project is broken up into eight different phases with Phase 2A recently crossing the finish line.
This work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
In April, the American Society of Civil Engineers presented SCWA with the Outstanding Community Improvement Project Award in the State of California. The award honored the Phase 2A portion of the project.
Project Manager, Helen Rocha, accepted the award for SCWA. She is tasked with keeping the whole project under budget and moving under a tight timeline while minimizing the impact on residents in the area.
Rocha stressed to the San Francisco audience that continuous outreach to the residents is a major key to keeping the project moving as smoothly as possible.
“We know we are impacting their lives in addition to their properties. There have been concerns we’ve addressed in the first two phases, but that has helped us improve our process for the remaining phases. The residents have become understanding and we expect that when all is said and done, the final product will improve their water delivery for decades,” said Rocha.
Before each phase starts, Helen and her team meet with the residents in the affected neighborhood to explain the project (removing 60 to 85-year old pipes and adding water meters and fire hydrants), its impact on them (road construction and digging up their front yard and back yard lawns), and the expected outcome (an upgraded water delivery system).
Phase 2A installed nearly three miles of new pipelines and upgraded the service connections in the area between Watt Avenue and Mills Road. The area received 40 new fire hydrants with larger water mains to improve flow in case of a fire and improved neighborhood roads.
The project has now moved onto
Phase 2B, which is expected to be completed in June.
The Arden Service Area is the last group of SCWA customers to receive water meters, and this is in response to the 2004 law requiring the installation of water meters to all customers by water suppliers like the Sacramento County Water Agency. All of the work must be completed by 2025 due to the State mandate.