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Has Been Building and Rehabilitating Large Diameter Pipelines Throughout the Western United States

for more than 55 Years

alifornia lawmakers recently voted to place a $7.5 billion water plan before voters this November with Governor

Brown being quoted as saying, “It’s about water, it’s about our future, it’s about Californians coming together.” California has dealt with draught conditions for three years now, with 2014 being one of the worst years since precipitation records began some 100 years ago. In fact, conditions are so bad that the California Water Resources Board has asked for voluntary water conservation efforts and even proposed fining citizens $500 per day for non-compliance of mandatory restrictions of water use.

California’s interconnected water system was originally meant to serve around 20 million people back in the 1970s. Today, this same system serves approximately 38 million and with a projected population of 50 million by the year 2020, it is clear that drastic measures must be taken to keep up with demand. California’s diverse agricultural industry helps to feed much of the nation and water is needed to irrigate its more than 5,680,000 acres of farmland. Water must travel long distances to reach consumers in Southern California and there are

six main systems of aqueducts and other infrastructure that transport it, including the California State Water Project (SWP), a water storage and delivery system of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping stations. The SWP stores and distributes water to 29 urban and agricultural water suppliers in Northern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Coast and Southern California. Other systems include the Central Valley Project, several Colorado River Delivery Systems, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Tuolumne River/Hetch Hetchy System, and the Mokelumne Aqueduct.

A reliable water supply is truly key to the future of California and having a reliable general engineering contractor building and maintaining these systems is obviously just as important. So when Aqueducts begin to show signs of age-related deterioration or new systems need to be built, firms like L. H. Woods & Sons, Inc. (LHWS) are called upon by public agencies to perform the construction. LHWS is a family-owned, third-generation general engineering contracting company based in Vista, Calif. specializing in the design, construction and rehabilitation of large-diameter pipelines. LHWS’ broad spectrum of expertise also includes the construction of water

By: Brian Hoover

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storage reservoirs, sewer and water pump stations, tunnels, concrete structures, concrete encased live aqueducts, valve vaults, complex mechanical systems, chlorination systems, roads, sewers and storm drains.

LHWS is highly respected as a contractor that has built a large portion of the pipelines and aqueduct systems in Southern California for more than 55 years. These projects include, but are certainly not limited to the Inland Feeder Riverside Pipeline North (MWD) that included 8.5 miles of 144” steel water pipe; Inland Feeder Highland Pipeline (MWD) that included 5.25 miles of 144” steel water pipe; Sand Canyon Pipeline (Castaic Lake Water Agency) that included 5 miles of 48” steel water pipe; and Pipeline 4B Schedule 1 and 2 (SDCWA)

that included 8.4 miles of 96” steel water pipe, just to name a few. They are also a recognized expert in rehabilitating older pipelines; being called upon at times to retrofit some of the very pipelines constructed by the company’s founder, Lee H. Woods some five decades ago.

Prior to founding L. H. Woods in 1958, Lee H. Woods (Lee) was involved in the crane and rigging business through his partnership with Harry Heisler. Heisler and Woods, Contractors grew into one of the West Coast’s largest crane rental companies, before selling the business in 1958. It was at this time that Lee formed a partnership with his son, James D. Woods Sr. (James), specifically to bid on the construction of a section of the San Diego Aqueduct.

LHWS ultimately incorporated in 1962 as a general engineering contracting company, with both father and son contributing greatly to the new company’s success. James had grown up in the family crane rental business, working for his father as a crane operator and foreman, after returning from service in the Korean War. James was only in his late-20s when LHWS was formed and he was well equipped to help run the business with an engineering degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. When Lee passed on in 1965, James remained as the sole owner and went on to serve as the company’s president until 1998, when he himself decided to retire and pass the family business on to his son, James D. Woods Jr.

Right L-R: Jim Woods, President, Terri Woods, Corp. Administrator, Mike Ireland, Project Manager, Chuck Wilson, Project Manager and Kris Wilson, Office Manager.

Below Right: San Ramon storm drain tunnel 2014.

Left Page: Pipeline excavation in Mission Gorge, San Diego. Circa 1960, L. H. Woods kneeling by excavator.

Below: Sweetwater Dam Crossing constructed in 1959.

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Like his father, James Jr. (James) worked for the family business during summer vacations, showing interest very early in high school of his being an integral part of LHWS’ future. James attended San Diego State University and after graduating in 1983, worked his way up from field laborer into a management position. “We are known in the industry for our work in the construction and relining of large diameter pipeline,” says James Woods Jr. “I like to kid with my dad that we are busy rebuilding his work” on pipelines he constructed that have now outlived their useful life cycle.

LHWS is the Nation’s leader in the rehabilitation of large diameter pipelines utilizing the steel relining process. Pipeline relining involves the

installation of solid or collapsed steel liner pipe into an existing pipeline. Steel liners are mated and welded in place and the annular space is then filled with grout and the new steel liner is then coated with cement mortar lining. When complete, a new cement mortar lined and coated welded steel pipeline is constructed within an existing deteriorated pipeline. This process can be completed in a fraction of the time and cost needed to construct a new open cut pipeline.

LHWS constructed more than 50 miles of large diameter steel relining pipelines over the past 20 years and hundreds of general engineering construction projects. One of the Company’s more interesting projects was probably the Pipeline 4B Project,

constructed for the San Diego County Water Authority back in 1991. The project came in at around $54 million, a number that would potentially be in triple digit million dollar figures in today’s economy. It included the construction of 8.4 miles of 96” and 109” CML&C welded steel pipe and took just shy of two years to complete. The project also included the construction of four large tunnels, concrete structures and roadwork, all along very rough, steep terrain, city streets. A part of the project included multiple connections to be completed within 10 days and LHWS completed all of the connections in an unprecedented 7 days. The San Diego County Water Authority’s pipelines extend more than 300 miles throughout San Diego County.

Above L to R: Nick Weil, Superintendent, Mike Ireland, Project Manager, Joel Ramirez, Superintendent, Kris Wilson, Office Manager, Jim Woods, President, Efrain Puentes, Superintendent, Chuck Wilson, Project Manager and Terri Woods, Corp. Administrator.

Right: L. H. Woods and Sons, Inc. corporate office in Vista, CA.

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Perhaps the most challenging steel pipeline projects were performed by LHWS back between 1998 and 2004 as part of the Metropolitan Water District’s Inland Feeder program, the Highland pipeline and the Riverside Pipeline North Contract 7 and 8 projects. These projects total approximately $100 Million Dollars and included the construction of approximately 14 miles of 144” CML&C welded steel pipeline. “These project began right as I was taking over full ownership of the company and we were doing a lot of things for the first time,” James remembers. “We were one of the first pipeline contractors to install 144” water lines with 60’ pipe joints. We were able to come up with very innovative methods and installed 14 miles of this 144” diameter pipeline.”

This was quite an achievement when you also consider that LHWS was installing this massive CML&C pipe at depths of up to 45 feet.

The projects also included the construction of six tunnels and much of it was completed within city streets that required the construction of $7 million of roadwork, including several road detours and bridgework. In addition, storm drains; new signalized intersections and numerous concrete structures were built. Other challenges included narrow right of way requiring solid sheet shoring and pipe carrier installed pipe, difficult rock excavation, four difficult creek crossings, time sensitive San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District intertie vault and large diameter mechanical and valve installations, as well as ongoing issues with groundwater and rock excavation. These project required coordination with multiple agencies including, cities, the flood control district, water districts (san Bernardino valley municipal water district and eastern valley water district)

and utility companies including Southern California Edison, State of California Wildlife Preserve (DF&G) and included numerous environmental restrictions and many special conditions for construction, in addition to schedule and working space restrictions.

San Ramon Canyon Storm Drain Project

Michael Ireland is a project and operations manager for LHWS out of its Los Angeles based, Marina Del Rey office. He works and oversees projects primarily in the Los Angeles area and he is currently on a very interesting and unique project for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. “The City of Rancho Palos Verdes has been dealing with a series of dangerous and costly landslides over the past several years,” says Ireland. “One of the worst landslide areas was located in the area where Palos Verdes

Left L-R: Joel Ramirez, Superintendent, Efrain Puentes, Superintendent and Nick Weil, Superintendent.

Below: Steve Rich, Hawthorne Cat Machine Sales Representative and Jim Woods, L. H. Woods and Sons, Inc.

Right Page: San Ramon storm drain outfall structure.

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runs into San Pedro in the East in the very narrow San Ramon Canyon.”

This particular canyon consisted of loose alluvium fill that would simply give way every year during the rainy season. Several feet of water, sediment and some times large boulders would then find its way into the mobile home parks and 25th street below. Something had to be done and so the City of Rancho Palos Verdes decided to undertake a pipeline construction and fill situation that would serve as a giant storm drain system and divert all of the rainwater down into the ocean below. This would require the involvement of several high profile agencies at the state level and getting a geotechnical engineer to certify and allow the city to move forward with the project was not easy.

4,300 lineal feet of 54” steel pipeline has been constructed, as well as two tunnels, one of which was 1,820’ long and 135 feet deep. Drill Tech Drilling and Shoring was the subcontractor for the tunnel portion and in addition to the longer tunnel, they constructed a 299 lineal foot second tunnel that had to be drilled through rock down to the oceanfront. One tunnel was constructed on a 48 percent slope

from the top of the bluff down to ocean below. “Through value engineering, we managed to convince the city to utilize a 54” steel pipe lined with polyurethane, rather than the proprietary specified epoxy pipe,” says Ireland. “Polyurethane offers better longevity and is typically used on storm drains or water mains that accept large amounts of debris. This change order alone allowed for a savings of around $630,000, half of which went back to the City of Rancho Palos Verdes.”

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes appreciated the value engineering and savings that LHWS afforded them so much that they asked for help on a redesign on the outlet structure to be constructed down on the beach. The structure called for two 36” in diameter concrete in drilled hole piles with 40’ high cast in-place walls. The city feared that the structure may end of being somewhat of an eyesore and so again through the efforts of LHWS value engineering, it was proposed that lower, more undulating sculptured walls be used in place of the big ugly gray concrete walls. The new design was used and ended up saving the city around $250,000.

To make this job even more unique, LHWS saved around 30 heavy equipment travel cycles up and down the ¾-mile shoreline by accessing the majority of the outlet structure from the bluff above, via a 150-ton crane. This $15,140,000 job represents the single largest public works project the City of Rancho Palos Verdes has ever performed. When completed this project will end up just below budget with much of the value engineered savings going back into some additional concrete and asphalt repaving work.

Pipeline 3 San Diego Desalinization Relining Project

LHWS is also currently working on the largest ocean desalination plant to be constructed in the entire Western Hemisphere. When completed in 2016, this $1 billion project will provide San Diego County residents with 50 million gallons of drinking water per year. LHWS’ portion comes into play where the new conveyance pipeline connects into the existing 72” aqueduct. LHWS began relining 5 miles of this pipeline at the Twin Oaks Treatment Plant in February 2014 and will be finished sometime in the first quarter of 2015.

Chuck Wilson is the project and operations manager for LHWS from San Diego to the Inland Empire. “We are currently relining 26,000 lineal feet of existing 72” to 75” aqueduct with 68” steel liners,” says Wilson. “We are excavating 15 portals along the pipeline in order to access and place new collapsible steel pipe within the old existing pipe.” The job has been slightly complicated by the fact that the existing pipeline had molded into more of an oval shape due to age and placing new round pipe inside was a challenge. LHWS found a way to make it work and this $25,270,000 job should be

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completed in March 2015. The existing aqueduct system is shut down during the relining process and it represents around 1/3 of San Diego’s water supply. LHWS understands this and has dealt with these critical deadlines for many years. They are currently ahead of schedule and are also currently working on two additional steel relining projects totaling $35 million in California and one $5 million design-build relining project in Arizona.

Part of LHWS’ success is due to their development of specialized equipment, including pipe carriers that can accommodate varying pipe diameters and virtually any terrain. LHWS has become well-known for their Woods designed and fabricated and at times patented technology and innovations. In addition, LHWS has been purchasing their heavy equipment from Hawthorne Cat for as far back as James Woods Jr. can remember. “Our fleet consists primarily of Cat equipment and most recently we have purchased a new Cat 374D L excavator, Cat 328D close radius excavator along with a pair of 950K Wheel Loaders from our friends at Hawthorne Cat,” says James. “My grandfather relied on Hawthorne as I have and my father before me.

LHWS owns and operates more than 100 pieces of heavy construction equipment, represented by almost every type of machinery Caterpillar offers.

L. H. Woods & Sons, Inc. (LHWS) has anywhere from 50 to 150 employees working for them on any given day. Many of their employees have worked with LHWS for 10, 15 or even 20 years. “Our bonding capacity is very large, but we are a small company in the large pipeline contractor game. This allows us to be more efficient, because we simply have less to maintain and we are able to do more with what we do have,” says James. “I am very grateful for and proud of everyone that works here at L. H. Woods & Sons. My sister, Teresa Woods, is our corporate administrator and she does an exceptional job at taking care of everything from insurance, bonding, benefits and generally coordinating all of our inside operations. We operate under a very aggressive team approach and I look forward to continuing to design, build and rehabilitate complex water systems throughout the Western United States.”

For more information on L. H. Woods & Sons, Inc. please go to www.lhwoods.com or call (760) 599-5500. Cc

Top Left: Cat 374D Excavator purchased from Hawthorne Cat on the Pipeline 3 desalination relining portal excavation.

Top: L. H. Woods’ crew at DWP Jawbone SAG Rehabilitation, Mojave, CA.

Above: One of 15 excavation portals on San Diego Desalination Relining Project.