The Bureau of Engineering, Design and Construction (BEDC) made significant progress in recent months on a $158 million project to clean, upgrade and rehabilitate the Catskill Aqueduct, which delivers about 40 percent of New York City’s drinking water each day.The aqueduct—perhaps one of the most complex water conveyance structures in the world—was shut down for 74 days in November, December and January to facilitate work inside the structure and at facilities connected to it. During that time, upwards of 200 workers were deployed at more than a dozen locations in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties to clean the inside of the aqueduct, repair leaks at several

locations, and replace valves that are connected to the aqueduct.

The most recent shutdown for the Catskill Aqueduct Repair and Rehabilitation Project allowed workers to accomplish the following tasks.

• Roughly 32.5 miles, or 171,500 linear feet, of the aqueduct’s concrete lining was cleaned from the inside. Workers removed a harmless, organic film from inside the aqueduct by using stiff scrapers that are similar to squeegees. The organic film creates a rough surface within the Catskill Aqueduct. That rough surface creates friction, causing the water to move slower and thereby reducing the amount of water that can flow through the aqueduct each day. Cleaning the aqueduct will restore an estimated 40 million gallons of its historic transmission capacity. The additional

capacity will be important when DEP shuts down the Delaware Aqueduct in 2022–2023 to connect the bypass tunnel that is currently being constructed under the Hudson River.

• Leaks and other defects, such as surface cracks, along the aqueduct were repaired at several locations. These were repaired by a variety of methods. A total of 14,036 linear feet of holes were drilled into the aqueduct to seal leaks by injecting them with a special grout that filled the cracks.

• Workers also removed and replaced two valves along the aqueduct. Another 33 valves will be removed and replaced in future shutdowns. These century-old valves are located at chambers that allow the aqueduct to drain into local bodies of water.

Additional work was also completed on access points into the aqueduct, old drainage gates along its path, and structural inspections. What’s more, the shutdown was completed without affecting the reliable supply of water to New York City or the 20 communities north of the City that usually draw their drinking water from the Catskill Aqueduct. The project will continue during shutdowns that are planned in 2020 and 2021.This shutdown of the Catskill Aqueduct was the longest since it

was first put into service in 1915. The project is unique because it requires more coordination and flexible planning than perhaps any upgrade we have implemented on our water supply infrastructure. The BEDC team, led by Wendy Sperduto and Chris Larsen, along with several other BEDC staff who stepped up to support the project during the shutdown, partnered with Todd West, Dan Michaud and several other staff from the Bureau of Water Supply, Bureau of Police and Security, and our contractors to communicate multiple times a day—even on weekends and holidays—to monitor the work, adjust to challenges, and ensure the security of our infrastructure.Their dedication and professional work has yielded success on this complex project to ensure the reliability of New York City’s water infrastructure for generations to come.

Volume XI • Issue 527February 11, 2020PIPELINEWEEKLY

Bill de Blasio, MayorVincent Sapienza, P.E., Commissioner

At DEP, everyone is responsible for safety. If you or anyone on your team is concerned about your working conditions, it’s okay to ask your supervisor or your bureau’s EHS liaison how they can help. If you’ve still got questions, you can call the EHS Employee Concerns Hotline. It’s DEP’s responsibility to acknowledge and fix unsafe situations, procedures, and practices. With your help, we’ll not only get the job done, we’ll make it safer for ourselves, our coworkers, our families, and our city. CALL (800) 897-9677 OR SEND A MESSAGE THROUGH PIPELINE. HELP IS ON THE WAY.

The following steps can reduce strain while using smartphones:• when buying a new phone,

try different kinds to see what feels most comfortable

• use a phone case with texture or traction to allow ease of grip

• use the “dictate” feature instead of typing, when you can

• use word prediction on the keyboard to use less keystrokes

• use the speakerphone or a headset to talk, when you can

• alternate your hand grip/position while holding the phone

• adjust brightness and color settings to reduce eye strain

Overall, it is important to take a break from your smartphone during the day to avoid any musculoskeletal or eye strain. For additional information, download this Smartphones and Ergonomics infographic.

Smartphone Ergonomics

Spotlight on Safety

Special Guest Commissioner’s CornerAna BarrioDeputy CommissionerEngineering, Design & Construction

We welcome your feedback! To submit an announcement or suggestion, please email us at:

newsletter@dep.nyc.gov.

Kiah Miller and Sal Campisi, both assigned to the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment, were recognized during the New York Water Environment Association’s 92nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, held February 3–5 at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, New York. The two were honored for their contributions to the wastewater industry. Kiah is the Plant Chief at DEP’s North River Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility

and has been an employee at DEP for 28 years. He was presented with the Uhl T. Mann Award for Excellence in Treatment Plant Maintenance. Sal is Chief of Collections Facilities South, responsible for 50 facilities in South Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, and has been with DEP for almost 35 years. He was presented with the Collections Operator of the Year award. Congrats to the both of you on these well-deserved awards!

The Bureau of Water Supply (BWS) is employing high-tech instruments at several locations throughout the watershed to measure the amount of precipitation that falls. The devices, known as ORG-815-DS Optical Rain Gauges, utilize a beam of infrared light and a receiver (or eye) that measures the refraction of that beam as it passes through anything in its path. (It’s a bit like how a safety sensor can stop a garage door from closing on something underneath it.) By measuring variations in the beam of light, it can determine whether it’s raining, sleeting or snowing, and the intensity of that precipitation. The new rain gauges mark a turning point of sorts for BWS meteorology efforts, both as the bureau moves away from previous technology that physically collected precipitation and as it reduces the number of weather stations it maintains across the almost 2,000-square-mile watershed. Each ORG-815-DS deployed in the watershed is part of a larger weather station that measures temperature, wind direction and speed, and relative humidity. BWS currently operates about 25 weather stations across the watershed.

Monitoring Watershed Precipitation

Kudos Corner

On Monday, 29 new employees attended orientation and received an overview of the department from the Deputy Director of Human Resources, Grace Pigott and Human Resources Generalist, Harold Kim. We hope everyone will join us in welcoming them to DEP!Gregory Brooks and Ryan Peters with BWS; Julia Casagrande with EXEC; Bing-Chuan Chiu, Richard Cummings and Shazid Rahman with BIT; Martha Colamarino, Cynthia Collazo, Sursattie Dhanraj Smith, Joanelle Donald, Shakima Johnson, Nakia Lynch, Jermaine McRae, Selma Morales and Cina Mostel with BCS; Aleena De Jesus, Matthew Di Carmine, Nisthani Fuard, Mahamudul Hossain, Carla Pierre Louis, Blu Semper and Derek Tonne with BWT; Samantha Jones, William Juang, Jovine Neita and Brian Pope with BPS; Mohammad Rahman, Hemraj Ramsaroop and Nicholas Randazzo with BWSO.

Welcome Aboard!

DEP on Monday welcomed 40 new trainees to its police academy in Kingston. The new class of recruits will train at the academy for seven months to become sworn officers in the DEP Police Division, which protects the watershed lands, reservoirs and infrastructure that comprise the largest municipal water supply in the United States. The new class of DEP police recruits will train at the Staff Sgt. Robert H. Dietz DEP Police Academy and includes 29 men and 11 women, four of which are military veterans. The class includes members from New York City, the Hudson Valley, the Catskills and six other countries including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kosovo and Thailand. Twelve of them speak more than one language. The recruits range in age from 21–40, with the average age being 27.

DEP Welcomes New Police Recruits