Power Plant Project Wins Engineering Award

Haiwee Power Plant Penstock Replacement Project earns a prestigious award for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Through the joint collaboration of many groups to protect the area’s natural resources. This project was no small feat as all facilities and operations along the Los Angeles Aqueduct system support the production of hydropower and providing drinking water for the City of Los Angeles.

With most of the aqueduct infrastructure having been built over 100 years ago, maintenance or construction called for out of the box thinking, and teamwork. Installed in the 1920s, this gravity-fed penstock carries water from the South Haiwee Dam to the Haiwee Power Plant, bringing drinking water 233 miles from the Eastern Sierra Nevada to the City of L.A. and is part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system.

Haiwee Power Plant Penstock Replacement Project replaced approximately 10,000 feet of steel with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pipe in a remote area of the high desert in Olancha, CA, was selected Regional Best Project in the water/environment category by Engineering News-Record.

What earned the project, this outstanding achievement engineering award, is that for the very first time in the aqueduct system, a fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pipe was used. Historically, steel is the preferred material used for the aqueduct. This lighter weight pipe will withstand regular operating pressure changes, as well as any sudden emergency unit shutdowns due to events such as earthquakes or wildfires. The fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pipe passed its first seismic tests during the Ridgecrest 6.4 and 7.1 magnitude earthquakes in July 2019.

The innovative use of  fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) pipe gave the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) an opportunity to investigate alternatives, and the decision to use the lighter weight, easier-to-install material became the best technical and cost-effective solution.”