The East Tank-West Tank Connector Pipeline Project is an integral part of our Water System Master Plan that was developed after the Kinneloa wildfire in 1993 to improve the ability of the Kinneloa Irrigation District (KID) to provide greater capacity to fight future wildfires or structure fires. The 150,000-gallon East Tank was installed in the mid 1950’s to serve the upper portion of the Kinneloa Ranch. This capacity was considered adequate at the time since very few homes were built in the area. However, this capacity does not meet the current standards of the Los Angeles County Fire Department for fire flow and available storage. In fact, this tank was only able to supply water for about 20 minutes during the 1993 wildfire. The 500,000-gallon West Tank was installed in the late 1990’s as part of the Kinneloa Ridge development with the future plan to connect the East and West Tanks in the project that is now about to begin. When completed, there will be a combined storage of 650,000 gallons with redundant pump stations and standby generators on both the east and west sides of the system. This project will provide the KID and its customers with a vastly improved emergency preparedness capability since a large amount of water will be available at the highest elevation of the KID system for the benefit of all of our customers.
The KID awarded the contract to Perry C. Thomas Construction, Inc. at its June 7, 2016 meeting after a competitive bidding process. From the west, the new pipeline will start at the cul-de-sac on Crystal Lane; along the emergency fire access road to Brambling Lane; south along Brambling Lane to Kinneloa Canyon Road; north on Kinneloa Canyon Road to the Fire Easement Road between 2240 and 2266 Kinneloa Canyon Road as well as continuing north to the end of Kinneloa Canyon Road; along the Fire Easement Road to Villa Heights Road; and continue in the street along the western extension to the intersection with the north-south portion of Villa Heights where it will connect with the existing East Tank pipeline.
The duration of the entire project will be approximately 120 days, but the construction of the section impacting any of our customers will be a very small portion of that period and access to streets and driveways will be fully restored at the end of the construction day. There will be vehicles and equipment travelling on your streets during the construction in your area and there may be temporary storage of materials to facilitate the project. The trench line will be re-paved to County of Los Angeles standards and will include a slurry seal.
The timing of the overall project and anticipated date that the contractor will be doing the construction in your area will be determined soon. The KID will provide you with advance notice of the construction in your area including information on the timing and duration of the work. Please direct any questions or concerns to us at 626-797-6295 or kinneloa@outlook.com. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding of any inconvenience caused as we complete this important project.
