know what our community benefits we would want to sponsor? >> because we are required by the city to set aside the arts management money, the realignment of the arts money to puc core issues actually shows so much more in taxes this is it all going to city hall and the embarcadero and places that had no relationship -- or the art itself had no relationship to the puc. >> that probably was not a good example. >> it was a great example. >> the other example as it sets an amount. we know how much, and we have established the linkage. four other community benefits, the linkage may not be as strong. >> i think it will probably be a bit more complex. the urban agriculture work that the puc was undertaking came from a male or let their -- directive -- came from a mayoral

directive. batting in -- i think it is an interesting conversation have. >> commissioners, the second item is the report on the a solar water supply system. as you recall, we were able to take over the system working with the fire department about a year-and-a-half ago, and we have been upgrading the system and working on the bond-funded portion of that. >> thank you. steve ritchie, assistant general manager for water. go to the slide please. talk about the of sillery water supply system, the giggly relative to the earthquake safety and emergency response bond. a lot of this was prepared by our project manager, but also on the operational aspects, the director of regional operations contributed to this

presentation. this is a photo of one an -- what an awss fire hydrant looks like. by comparison, across the street, you can see a traditional fire hydrant. it is much smaller, and those tend to get broken over when they get hit by cars. awss does not. it is designed to withstand a big earthquake. that really is a large, complex system that i will talk about more in a moment. in 2010, the awss was transferred from the fire department to the puc as part of our water operations in support of them. they fight fires, we manage water systems. that was the purpose of the transfer. we have since been coordinating operations with the fire department, which includes both the regular water system and the auxiliary water supply system. we've responded to two w-alarm fires and above.

on sunday, there was a four- alarm fire in the city. we had three gateman respond to two working the regular system and one that was on standby at one of these banks to make sure it could go into operation immediately if needed -- at one of the tanks. and it is a typical fire, but it was certainly a typical response for a high-level event. in 2010, there was the a quick safety and emergency response bond that was passed by the voters that had about $104 million in it for the of solar water supply system. as we implement that, we are engaging first in a planning study to assess the status of the system and assess levels of service we think we can provide for the system. maybe take some pieces of it out of operation but maybe beef up some. we are also looking at a lot of pipelines in that, which is about 135 miles of pipelines, but these are bigger, beefier pipelines. there's also a physical plant.

we have about 199 cisterns scattered throughout the city that fire tankers can pull up to actually fight fires. in terms of overall program management, a lot of coordination with the fire department because they are the customers in this ultimately. we have a steering committee that includes the general manager and the fire chief, but also the head of public works and myself, and a technical committee of experts to advise on it. we have a pretty tight schedule and budget we are working to that i will get to in the last slide. this is the physical plant of the system. the red lines are all of the distribution types that are in the awss system, and it calls up the twin peaks reservoir in the center of the city, and the jones street tanked. there are also two pumps stations, stations one and two, that are connected to the bay to pump bay water. those have been unusable for some time because they are clogged with sediment.

you can see an operation we have under way to remove mud from the intake so that station can become usable. that is under way right now. >> what is the address? >> literally, it is the foot of van ness. there is a white building in van mason, playstation #to the wheel. we also have a number of cisterns. the green dots are the existing cisterns. the sisters themselves are not that big. each of those represents about 1000-foot radius out from a sister and that represents the area that a fire can be far. the red and purple dots -- you'll notice the green dots are more heavily in the northeast area of the city, and the red and purple or on the west and southern areas of the city. we are also looking at seeing if we can feed some of those through groundwater and/or recycled water as a way to fight fires. this is a total of 26 reservoir

on top of 20. it was just recently cleaned out. we added a large new intake from some reservoir that we could put water in rapidly and also cleaned it out. the voter does not show the large pile of debris which came out of this. unlike our drinking water reservoirs, this is uncovered so it does accumulate stock over time, but we found it to be in strikingly good condition. it is actually in pretty good shape. lastly, the schedule, we are looking at designing about 15 cisterns, developing the cost for pump station one, conceptual engineering on pump station two, and a draft study report, the implementation study that i referred to. all of that willnext year, desiw sisters, looking at proposed language for a november 2013 bond to follow up on what we have found now that we have looked hard. finish additional designs. we expect to be in construction

on a number of these things in 2013, so we're doing things to improve the system, just like we started with twin peaks reservoir. i would be happy to answer any questions. commissioner moran: thank you. commissioners? we do have public comment. >> my name is dick martin, chair of the spur disaster planning committee. i am represented myself today. when the bond was being considered, i met with amy brown, the assistant cao, and brian strong, because as you saw, my neighborhood and many other neighborhoods were totally protected by awss. it is confined to the northeast. i am here is a strong advocate to the program and want to emphasize too hard in the system, to expand the system for

emergency water supply -- to pardon the system. the high-pressure system as we talked about. in our meeting with amy and brian, i suggested that we're not tapping some of the major water resources in the city. lake merced. sunset reservoir. merced manor. other ones that are adjacent or very near existing awss pipelines and should be connecticut -- connected. sunset reservoir is about four short blocks to 19th avenue, where the awss system is. interestingly enough, i recommended 26 to 32 cisterns, and that is what ended up in the bond. because out in a lot of those neighborhoods, we have a constant at least 10 mile an hour wind. it is an uphill slope, and it is pools of tar on the flat roofs

out there with very little protection. i would like to accelerate the cisterna program so we can really begin to cover it. steve mentioned connection to the west side basic ground water system. i think the puc needs to look beyond just awss and see where the other supply systems are, where the other connections can be, and let's integrate awss clearly into the overall water supply. lastly, asper has sponsored a couple of meetings with dr. richard allen -- jasper has sponsored a couple of meetings with dr. richard allen, who was part of the california earlier earthquake warning system. and he has met with a lot of city staff. within the last 10 days, he met with ann, the director of the department of emergency management.

they would like to call together various key city departments to become a demonstration of how this early warning system could work. [bell rings] they need bart as one of the participating groups. they would like to get city agencies to participate. if you can maintain continuity of service by having even 15 or 20 seconds of warning, which would enable you to may be shut it down, started up, do something, rather than just have it slam. that is what it is 4. thank you. commissioner moran:. -- thank you. any other comment on awss? >> the final report is our wsip quarterly report. >>commissioner moran: ms. labon?

>> good afternoon, commissioners. i am the wsip director. today's quarterly update covers the reporting time between october 2 and december 24. these are slides that summarized the progress made on the program during the reporting quarter. essentially we had one project. one of the four projects that remain in its design move to a bit and award, the seismic addition to pipeline three in four. two projects, said the construction activity, completed, and moved to close at hunters point reservoir rehab and the improvements. we also had two local projects that completed their clothes out activities, so these projects are now completed. -- so their clock -- that

completed their clothes out activities, so these projects are not completed. three of seven are in big and awards, to get into construction. construction is now active on 19 projects, over $2.5 billion. we have completed construction activities on it now two-thirds of the program's 81 projects. this slide summarizes the cost and schedule variances, and it compares all these variances have changed from the previous quarter. you can see that red means cost-overrun, and black is underrun or savings. the overall variants on the original program went from $12 million to $24.8 million. essentially doubled. $10.4 million of the $12 million is due to one project of the

peninsula pipeline seismic upgrade your you have not heard much of that project yet because that is our only with the project remains in planning. i will elaborate a little bit more about the reason for the cost increase. the good news is that on the local site, we have increased our savings by about $1 million. but still reporting variances on schedules. still on track to complete our local program in mid-2015 and the regional program in mid- 2016. this is essentially a graphical representation of the cost. in red is there for a program budget. we are still running well below, even though there is a slight trend upwards, but still well below the amount of money that is available in the program. this is a summary of the program management reserved. we have $144 million left in the

reserve at this point. the reserve when down during the reporting quarter by $670,000. we went to the board of supervisors to ask for a release of $670,000 for covering final construction costs on the tesla treatment facility. now i will briefly go over some of our biggest challenges and achievements. as i mentioned, the majority of the cost increases at the program level came from the peninsula bible and seismic upgrade. this is a project that -- peninsula pipeline seismic upgrade. when we put the estimate together, it was based on an alternative analysis report level testament and was still very early in planning. limited information. then we did a lot of g.o. technical analysis as well as seismic work, at -- geotechnical

analysis as well as seismic work, and we have a deeper, wider trenches across the fall. we wanted to include more realistic allowances in overhead for contractors. finally, we had to make adjustments to unit prices. some of the unit prices in the original budget were pretty aggressive. and of low we still see a pretty aggressive bidding environment, we felt it would be permitted to increase those slightly -- although we still see a progressive bidding environment. because of the uncertainty with the bidding environment, i think what we want to do is monitor the cost of that project very closely. we may also need to look at the scope and see how the scope could be adjusted slightly to make sure it runs closer to the project budget. but before we make any radical decision on the scope, i would recommend that we let the design

double up a little further. there is an option of hitting the project, what we call optional bid items. if the bids are aggressive and low, we can build more, essentially. there are a lot of options. and i briefed the general manager and the executive team, and they agree with that approach at this point. i wanted to also brief you on some of the challenges we have encountered on the eastern segment of the san joaquin pipeline system. we had some challenges associated with getting a permit from california fish and game, which impacted the start of the pipe-laying activities that set us back a little bit. there were some unforeseen side conditions related to a pressure release pipe at the portal. we now will have to replace that pipe. there was also some issues with the support structure of existing pipelines that was not

shown in the drawings, and it is such that it gets in the way of the laying of the new pipeline, so there will need to be adjustments made there. protected migratory birds were also detected on site, and that further debate some of the critical activities. what we're doing now is we're working with the contractor on a recovery schedule and mitigating any further delays. i think in the next report, we will be in better shape to predict. but still very early on in the project, so there's definitely room to make up some time. you will notice that in our latest cover letter, we now have a more extensive section that discusses major program trends and it risks, and we added that the recommendation of bawsca. as section also explained the differences between our different categories of change orders, trends, and risks.

i will not go into all the details, because it is very well-documented in the cover letter as well as the supplemental report. it is important to recognize that the three with the projects that carry the greatest trends and risks are shown here. i briefed you on a number of occasions about the different challenges associated with these projects. two of those projects, new irvington tunnel and bay tunnerl are about halfway to completion -- and bay tunnel are about halfway to completion. they're making good progress despite challenges. on the good news side, we were able to resolve a number of pre construction issues on the seismic upgrade during the reporting of time. a number of technical issues

related to a very complex slip joint for this project were resolved. we got all our reach what -- required caltrans permits and approvals. completing the archaeological assessment. the good news is there were no discoveries. we got the approvals required to relocate a sewer line owned by the union sedentary district. as i mentioned to you in mid- april, we obtained seven bids for this project. although this has yet to be totally confirmed, the apparent low bid is 30% lower than the estimate. they came in at $31.4 million, and the estimate was $51 million. so, still a good environment. questions? >> yes, it has always been my experience is sometimes the low bidders come in and then change orders come in after. what precautions are reporting forward to avoid that? >> most of the program is being built in this environment.

we have a number of -- first of all, we put in place one of the most bastardi program management structures in place -- most sturdy program management structures in place. in the field, we have all the tools and systems. you are right, commissioner. when aggressive bids come, more aggressive pursuit of a change- overs. >> what has been the percentage of avoiding that? >> on all the projects we have completed so far, our record is a very good. we're averaging under the normal 10%. there are some projects, however, that have seen much greater change-orders as a result of an unforeseen side conditions. we try to negotiate them very hard. you need to negotiate two things. you need to negotiate validity of responsibilities, and then there is a quantum, how much

they are. >> g.o. i.g. issues? >> the lot of our work is underground -- geologic issues? >> yes, a lot of our work is underground. the utilities are old, so the drawings are not always accurate in describing what is actually there. >> the end of the day, we can say with full confidence that we're very existing -- exacting fiscal stewards of our project? >> yes, we can. >> we also get a quarterly report to you that shows each project and what happens with change orders or projected change orders in terms of cost and time. >> the agency that i govern operates with a 60's and operating cost cap. so we're very sensitive -- with a 6% operating cost cap. so we are very sensitive to ensure that 94% of the money we raise goes to research. >> we have probably 10 oversight

bodies that might turn our work. we're highly scrutinized and kept accountable for all our expenses. that definitely keeps us on our toes. >> thank you. >> another is, pipeline and number five, east bay segment, we reached a resolution on outstanding change orders. we reached the final completion of all physical work by an early february, and this is one project where i had mentioned that it looks like we will be allowed to close the box on this about $5 million under the latest project budget and contingency you had allocated for us. granted, we needed more contingency, but at least we're able to give a $5 million back. and finally, on the western segment of the san joaquin pipeline, the good news there is that we have completed all the piping work ahead of schedule. we were supposed to complete final completion on construction

on at this in december 2012, and if all kids going according to the pace we're on right now, we may be able to -- if all keeps pace and is accordingly, we will be able to close that. that completes my report. commissioner moran: thank you. commissioners, any additional questions? >> i would like to make a comment. we have the capital project reporting structures that we put in place with wsip, and i have not seen anything that is as detailed and informative in public-sector contrasting projects ever. i think the admission of the memo that you talk about really completes the picture -- to the addition of the memo that you talk about really complete the picture. it is barely short report and did an excellent job of pulling out what the progress was and what the issues were and what is

being done about that. i found that a very helpful addition to the package. thank you very much. >> thank you. that concludes the general managers' report. commissioner moran: ok, any public comment on the general managers' report? >> i am representing san francisco green party and the local grassroots organization in our city. i wanted to refer back to the presentation from the general manager on external affairs on community benefits. i think it is time now that we're getting close with community choice aggregation the that becomes more of a focus for the community choice program, because i know from decades in the environmental movement that it is very easy for greenies like me who do not live in marginalized communities to go that we're going to get clean energy and it is good for the environment and the animals and

wildlife, so let's just go for it and we will worry about this other stuff later. i think now that the bill the -- build-out for the community choice program is becoming real, it is important for ms. ellis' team to engage in local power and the sfpuc power enterprise staff more specifically on making sure that communities that need community benefits and workers' that need local hiring and local contractors that need to be included in that process, that we get way out ahead of that with community choice and make sure we are not dropping the ball on those people that need this kind of involvement so much. and that would include nine marginalized communities, making sure that they can leapfrog technologies -- and that would include in a marginalized communities, that they can leapfrog technologies. we need to get those communities

that do not have the economic ability to be the first adopters as easily of renewable energy, to be given the opportunity through the program to be first to doctors so that everybody is receiving clean energy benefits and the worker benefits equally across the entire city. hopefully that can become more conscious in the process now that we're getting toward game time on the build-out. thank you. commissioner moran: thank you. any other public comment. ok, thank you. consent calendar. >> consent calendar. all matters constitute a consent calendar are considered routine by the san francisco public utilities commission and will be acted upon by a single vote of the commission. there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the commission or the public so requests, in which event the matter will be removed from the consent calendar and considered as a separate item. a, job order contra-22 with gold spring construction company to

accomplish general building construction work, increasing the contract by $500,000 and with a time extension of three years. b, approve modicum of -- modification never wanted job order contract-28 wed california straight -- cal state constrictors to accomplish general engineering construction work. a time extension of two years. c, accept work performed by shaw pipelines incorporated for wd- 2583, install protection for 60-inch steel water main on 20th avenue and kirkum street, decreasing the contract by $39,737 and authorizing final payment to the contractor. d, approve the plans and specifications in contract wd- 2673r as needed for 2012 annual

paving contracts in the amount of $4,089,800 for the lowest bidder for m square construction. e, wd-2446, ductile iron pipe main installation, in the amount of $1,381,000 to the lowest qualified responsible bidder. f, approve the agreement number of cs-877, a biology consulting with the susan mccormick, taxonomy consultant, increasing time extension of six months. g, approved the assignment and no wish an agreement for it cs- 910, san francisco regional/local construction management services and operate the general manager to execute

the existing sfpuc contract from ara engineering group to c2pm. commissioner moran: thank you. commissioners, any items you would like pulled? seeing none, can i have a motion. moved and a second. all those in favor? opposed? motion carries. item nine, please. >> item 9, authorized the general manager to execute a memorandum of understanding by and between the sfpuc and san francisco recreation and parks commission regarding the management of lake merced tract and to accept the lake merced watershed report. >> mr. ritchie? >> excuse me, good afternoon, again. assistant general manager for water. i would like to go to the slides for the lake or said mou