Crafton Hills Pump Station

Ames constructed a new pump station at Crafton Hills and expanded the Citrus and Cherry Valley stations for a capacity expansion project for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in San Bernardino County.

At the main facility at the Citrus location, Ames crews added eight vertical turbine pumps, a switchyard, air chambers, an office building, and a storage building. The other facilities required extensive start-up, testing, and commissioning of DWR-furnished pumps, switchgear, and associated electrical equipment. At the Crafton and Cherry Valley pump stations, Ames’ field staff devised a bolt-and-beam system to suspend and level a 15,000-pound pump barrel inside an existing pump station vault.

During a month-long shut down of the Crafton Hills and Cherry Valley pump stations, crews replaced valves and installed new piping and a new electrical control system. This involved gutting the electrical system and integrating old systems components with new equipment. The installation included the program logic and testing and ensured that the plant came back online at the end of the outage.

A portion of the work was near an endangered kangaroo rat habitat. A biological expert performed an audit over consecutive nights, and once the area was cleared for work, Ames installed temporary exclusion around the site.

The new facilities significantly increased the system’s efficiency by reducing on-peak pumping.