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Cal Water’s 2025-2027 Infrastructure Improvement Plan is making progress in downtown Visalia.
The project includes replacing 48,965 feet of aging water main, installing new treatment sites, and upgrading facilities to expand their delivery capabilities. Improving existing wells and locating sites for new wells are also planned.
Cal Water’s current efforts in downtown Visalia also include a new 975,000-gallon water storage tank and booster station, which will be the fifth water storage tank in the city.
“This particular project is due to be completed and online by middle of September,” said Stephen Johnson, district manager for Cal Water. “Right now, we’re just doing the finishing touches on the project.
“We have three boosters that will deliver to the system anywhere between 1,000 gallons a minute and 2,500 gallons a minute,” Johnson said. “This is really an important project because the hospital is very close.”
He said that during an emergency response situation, the water tank system will keep Kaweah Health supplied with water.
The system’s high level of water pressure is also expected to help Cal Water increase its role in area firefighting efforts.
The water company currently has a group called the operations response team that are “first boots on the ground” people who go into areas with fire activity or other emergencies to assess the damage and report back to help plan a response, Johnson said.
“Our team is on call and ready respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he added. “That’s really important, especially in the last few years because of all the fire activity we had throughout the state.
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“This is about a $4 million project, but it’s critical to the system,” Johnson said about the water tank facility. “This town is growing and it is critical to keep up with demand.”
Cal Water plans to invest a total of $91.2 million in the district infrastructure plan, which includes $73.1 of newly proposed capital investments, according to Laura Florez-McCusker, external communications manager for the Cal Water district.
“The money comes from the company and the shareholders, and we recover that gradually over the useful lifespan of the infrastructure, often multiple decades, through rates,” she said.
Acequia Avenue project
“We’re doing a (water main) replacement program down on Acequia,” Johnson said. “It’s very similar to the one that we did on Main Street about two years ago, which was about a yearlong project. Our number one mission is to deliver safe reliable water supply that’s clean, and those pipes on Acequia are extremely old.”
New 12-inch pipes will replace the eight-inch pipes installed in 1928.
“We’re upsizing (the main) so we can move water around more efficiently,” Johnson said. “It really goes hand-in-hand with our tank installation project that we’re doing.”
The current plan to install 3,350 feet of new water main under Acequia Avenue and a few connecting streets has been divided into two projects.
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“The first project is from Clark and Acequia going east to Edison and Acequia,” said Scott McNamera, superintendent at California Water Service. “Once the project is done – and we’re hoping it will be wrapped up at the end of October or November – we’ll roll into the second project, which will be from Clark and Acequia going west to Bridge Street.”
The project started on Acequia in front of the water tank system to help the system get online sooner, McNamera explained.