North Avenue Trunk Sewer

 
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Project Summary

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For the City of Fresno, Blair, Church and Flynn conducted an alignment study for a 4-mile long, 66-inch trunk sewer in North Avenue, from Fruit Avenue to Maple Avenue. It was originally planned to design and construct the relief sewer in three separate phases, but Phases 1 and 2 were subsequently combined into a single construction contract. Once the alignment was established, Blair, Church & Flynn prepared construction plans and specifications for Phases 1 and 2, from Fruit Avenue to State Route 99. Phase 3, from State Route 99 to Maple Avenue, is planned to be constructed when needed in the future. Project construction was completed in 2003, at a cost of $7.0 million.

This project included the construction of major junction structures at Fruit, Cherry and Orange Avenues. The Orange Avenue structure is unique in that it provides a crossing point between the original sewer and the new relief sewer, where wastewater flow can be managed between the two sewers by the operation of stainless steel slide gates. Specifications provided strict requirements for capacity, redundancy and continuous monitoring of the high-capacity bypass pumping systems that were necessary for junction structure construction.

To reduce construction costs and expedite project construction, two separate pipe supply contracts were prepared and awarded for pipe manufacturing. Different pipe manufacturers supplied the pipe for the two phases, even though construction was done under a single construction contract. The project specifications included detailed requirements for pipe delivery and handling, with explicit provisions to ensure that responsibility for the pipe was clearly defined throughout the manufacturing and construction processes.