84 Concrete Cutting and Demo Crew Members Join Forces to Repair California Aqueduct The Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA) is one of the largest aqueducts in the United States and supplies drinking water to millions of residents in Southern California. Constructed over six years from 1933 to 1939, it was the largest public works project in Southern California during the Great Depression. The aqueduct carries water west from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border across the Mojave and Colorado Deserts to the east side of the Santa Ana Mountains. The CRA runs for 242 miles and is composed of two reservoirs, five pumping stations, 62 miles of canals, 92 miles of tunnels and 84 miles of buried conduits and siphons. Over time, the concrete canals and reservoirs deteriorate, with concrete spalling and cracking. Rebar is exposed and rusts with exposure to air and water, which then leeches into the water supply. The damaged concrete also compromises the structural integrity of the canal liner, and therefore the supply of safe drinking water. It was determined that the canal needed to be repaired, no small feat considering the sections in need of repair spanned a total of 97 miles and would require the complete shutdown of the canal, a clean removal of the damaged concrete and a successful pour-back. Due to the massive scope of this project, an experienced professional with the expertise and manpower to get this job done on time would be needed. CSDA member Penhall Company and their team of over 1,500 concrete professionals were called to action to cleanly remove the canal and reservoir liners in a short timeframe. This wasn’t the first time Penhall has tackled this challenging job – a similar project was undertaken 15 years ago on the CRA. “The sun and concrete are not best friends!” stated Keegan Clemens of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and with much of the canal exposed to the hot desert sun on a daily basis, the elements won. In 2003, Penhall anticipated set-up and tear-down time to take three weeks, however, operators had only seven days to complete the work on 97 miles of the aqueduct while drained. It was a challenge accepted, and successfully accomplished. Further complicating this project was the location – project headquarters was the Iron Mountain Pumping Station,...