EBMUD continuously looks for new ways to improve our work. One area where new collaborations have started to pay off is in paving.
- To repair a broken water main or install a new pipeline, we have to break open your street. That can be anything from a small hole to hundreds or thousands of square feet.
- Once our work on the water main is complete, we fill the hole with a fine gravel or sand, compact it, then lay hot asphalt to patch it temporarily.
- We aim to replace the temporary with permanent paving within 30 days after we finished the job, weather permitting (no rain and temps above 50 degrees), by grinding away the old street and overlaying new asphalt.
- We work within restrictive hours and crowded streets, so some larger projects can take longer.
We’ve become closer partners with city agencies to either pave a road together, or coordinate schedules so a city can repave its road right after we’ve replaced a main.
In the last two years, EBMUD has completed seven major projects in close coordination with the cities of Oakland, Richmond and Orinda. The projects generated a total of nearly 650,000 square feet of newly paved roads. Either the cities provided materials and EBMUD completed the labor, or EBMUD paid the city to complete the paving for us.
While cost savings were mostly neutral, we shared valuable information about a new grind-and-overlay technique that makes paving more efficient, and we improved relationships by working on a shared timeline. Our teamwork means we can quickly get in and out and leave you with a brand new road and even more reliable water service. That’s paving the better way.