Customer Success Stories > Precision Enterprises

Precision Enterprises Towers Above Eastside Reservoir

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) has completed one of their most ambitious projects to date—the Eastside Reservoir. Constructed as a way to combat the consistent problem of water availability in Southern California, the reservoir is about fifty-five miles northeast of San Diego, near Hemet. It is more than two miles wide and four miles long. According to Dennis Majors, Assistant Chief Engineer at MWD, the reservoir nearly doubles Southern California's surface storage capacity, secures six months of emergency storage in the event of a natural disaster, and provides up to two years of reliable reserve against drought.

One of the crucial elements in the design of the reservoir is the twenty-two-story inlet/outlet tower designed to bring water into and out of the reservoir through a complex system of pipes. Completed in late 1999, the construction of the tower was budgeted for $25 to $30 million. The construction of the tower includes “two vertical wells: one wet for the water and the other dry for the tower’s control equipment. The tower's design permits water withdrawal from any of nine levels at 26-foot intervals, giving reservoir operators maximum flexibility to ensure the highest water quality. At each floor level, two 84-inch-diameter butterfly valves in the dry well will control flow between the reservoir and the wet well.” This elaborate operation requires a sound, thorough design and leaves no room for error.

The contract for designing the 270-foot tower was awarded to Precision Enterprises in Chino, California, based on their reputation for finishing projects on time, within budget, and according to plans. With this project they reinforced that reputation by paying close attention to detail and making valuable use of their time. Gary Cook, President of Precision Enterprises, says the one thing that helped them save time and money on the construction of the tower was using CADPIPE’s Commercial software.

Mr. Cook says he saves time and money by taking advantage of advances in CAD software, such as those found on CADPIPE Commercial. Such advances include “plumbing-type systems and a combination of features such as Auto Route, Intelligent Routing lines and Collision Checking.” CADPIPE’s Auto Route and Routing line features automatically place complex runs of pipe horizontally or vertically including turns, bends, and fittings--saving many hours of monotonous drafting. Collision Checking is an invaluable asset to designers. It warns them of possible collisions between objects while they are creating the drawing, eliminating problems before they become expensive mistakes.

Another time saver Mr. Cook enjoys is CADPIPE’s ease of use. “The program was relatively simple to setup and operate, and the learning curve is small,” says Mr. Cook. CADPIPE Commercial greatly reduces unprofitable preparation hours and allows designers to begin piping plans almost immediately.

In short, Mr. Cook uses CADPIPE Commercial software because it works: “We believed at the time we purchased CADPIPE and still do--it is the most superior piping software package on the market.”

Precision Enterprises’ successful design and construction of the twenty-two story inlet/outlet tower brings the MWD one step closer to providing adequate and reliable supplies of high-quality water in an environmentally and economically responsible way.