Gila River Indian community upgrades water system

The Gila River Indian Community was established in 1939 as  the self-governing body for the 580-square mile Gila River Indian Reservation, and runs alongside the southern border of the city ofPhoenix within Pinal and Maricopa Counties. The Gila River Indian Community Department of Public Works needed to replace old and failing water lines while also expanding the existing system to account for community growth, improved water pressure, and increased fire protection flow, throughout the seven districts that make up the Gila River Indian Community.

Ritoch-Powell & Associates (RPA), a civil engineering firm with offices in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona, was selected to design two of the projects—an intertie between District 2and District 3 requiring 6 miles of new pipe, and 9 miles of pipe for the Goodyear community in District 4. The new water lines crossed underneath the Eastern Maricopa Floodwayas well as irrigation canals and pipes which are part of the Pima-Maricopa Irrigation Project, and storm drain headwalls and culverts. Although jack & bore is the typical methodfor crossing the floodway and irrigation canals, RPA looked for innovative methods of construction and materials and determined horizontal directional drilling (HDD) using Fusible PVC^® pipe was a viable solution.

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