New UV Water Treatment Plant Featuring 144″ Pipe by NWP Opens in L.A.

The Los Angeles Project utilizes some of the largest fittings ever manufactured and transported by Northwest Pipe Company.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) recently completed the new Los Angeles Reservoir Ultraviolet Disinfection Plant (LARUVDP), located in the San Fernando Valley. The state-of-the-art plant is the second UV disinfection facility operated by the LADWP. Capable of treating up to 650 million gallons a day, the UV facility adds a final step to the Los Angeles Aqueduct Filtration Plant’s sanitation processes, ensuring the continued delivery of the safest, highest quality water to network users in the drought-affected region. The new 30,000 square-foot facility includes 15 UV reactors, a 3-leg flow station, and over 50 large diameter valves ranging in size from 48- to 144-inches that connect to pipe and custom fittings supplied by Northwest Pipe Company.

Production of this landmark project started at our engineered steel pipe plant in Adelanto, California in 2015, with manufacturing and shipping continuing through 2018. During that time we produced over 1,800 LF of steel pipe fittings in various large diameters and configurations, including nearly 1,000 LF of 144-inch cement mortar lined and coated fittings—some of the largest and heaviest pieces ever fabricated by Northwest Pipe Company. Among them, three crotch-plated tees weighing in at 80,000 to 103,000 pounds each.

Planning the production of these colossal pieces required critical thinking and an injection of ingenuity into each step of the process. Relying on strong teamwork, unwavering attention to safety, and a little creativity in modifying processes to the scale of the project, the dedicated Adelanto team capably fabricated each piece to exacting specifications. Moving the finished pieces from the plant to the jobsite presented its own logistical challenges. The largest piece was a 30-foot wide crotch-plated tee, but the width of the shipping gate from the plant is only 28 feet. After careful evaluation of options, the local team decided that temporarily dismantling the surrounding chain-link fence to accommodate the loaded truck was the best solution.

Once out of the gate, the next hurdle was trucking the oversized and over-height load to the jobsite 100 miles away. This required detailed pre-planning to obtain a California Highway Patrol route survey to divert bridges and overpasses. Utilizing the safest and most efficient route, the fabricated pieces arrived in approximately 4 hours’ time and without event. Project contractor SP Rados then successfully installed the pipe fittings. Additionally, our industry partner Jifco fabricated approximately 920-feet of 48-inch interior process pipe for this project, also installed by SP Rados.

The opening of the LARUVDP facility represents a significant step toward future water resilience for the nearly 4 million people served by the LADWP water system. It’s also an exciting achievement for the stakeholders who, from design to manufacturing to construction, helped make this major infrastructure project a reality.

See photos of the completed project and learn more about how the new UV disinfection facility is helping keep L.A.’s water supply safe and reliable: https://bit.ly/3N8vkZd

Media Coverage:
Los Angeles Daily News – Article