Downtown Petaluma water main to be replaced

Crews will soon be working to dig up and replace the aging and undersized water main under Petaluma Boulevard North, a project that will significantly boost fire protection in the area by allowing overhead sprinklers for more buildings in the city’s historic downtown district.

Spanning from Lakeville Street to B Street, the $4.2 million replacement project will kick off in June, after the Petaluma City Council voted on Monday to award a contract for the work. Workers will replace a four-inch pipe between 50 and 75 years old with a new 12-inch main, including offshoots to make it easier and cheaper for buildings to connect to the system and some sewer improvements along the corridor.

The project follows a series of major fires that have ravaged parts of Petaluma’s downtown in recent years, including a particularly aggressive blaze on Kentucky Street in 2002 when firefighters struggled to obtain enough water from the area’s underground lines to fight the flames.

The response left one Petaluma firefighter severely injured and several businesses destroyed, and prompted local officials to adopt a mandatory fire sprinkler policy affecting a district built well before such systems were a common practice.

Petaluma’s fire marshal said establishments along Kentucky Street have been eager to add those sprinklers and have done so all along the roadway, yet affected businesses along Petaluma Boulevard have been unable to go forward while awaiting the prerequisite upgrade of the underground line.

“The requirement was put into place, but it was contingent on the city supplying adequate water pressure, which we haven’t been able to do,” said Larry Zimmer, Petaluma’s deputy director of public works.

Work will occur in the evenings between Sunday and Thursday, and is anticipated to wrap up by April of 2017, according to Zimmer and information from the city of Petaluma. Businesses with basements or other space below street level will have six years from the end of the calendar year in which the project is completed to install the sprinklers and related connections to the main water line, and above-grade businesses, where hookups are more challenging, will have 12 years to comply.

The new line will include lateral connections that will make it easier for properties to access the water main, requiring only a sidewalk removal instead of digging a trench through the roadway, Erica Ahmann Smithies, senior civil engineer with the city of Petaluma and manager of the water main replacement project.

Costs for such retrofits can vary significantly, though the design of the new main will help limit the expense, she said.

“What we have done to help assist them is to put in that fire service lateral all the way up to the back of the curb, partially so we are protecting our street, but it’s a large cost saving,” Ahmann Smithies said.

The vast majority of businesses along the line will need to retrofit their properties with the sprinkler systems, she said.

The installation of the sprinklers can come with a payoff, giving business owners the ability to increase the number of people permitted in the building at one time and potentially expanding allowable activities to include new uses such as a brewery, said Cary Fergus, the fire marshal.

“All of the businesses along Kentucky Street have installed sprinklers, which allows them the full use of their properties,” he said. “Several businesses have been proactive on this.”

Petaluma Downtown Association Executive Director Marie McCusker lauded the cooperation of fire and other city staff in working cooperatively with downtown merchants.

“It’s going to be a good thing, because we’ve had so many fires. Anyone who wanted to get themselves up to code couldn’t, because the water wasn’t there,” she said.

Work will also shut down during the busy holiday season between Nov. 18 and Jan. 1, part of a program that seeks to minimize traffic impacts.

“Taking that into account is very considerate,” McCusker said.

(Contact Eric Gneckow at eric.gneckow@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @Eric_Reports.)