ECI serves as Owner Engineer for San Diego Gas & Electric for their Cleveland National Forest Master Special Use Permit and Permit to Construct Power Line Project (CNF Project). SDG&E’s CNF Project is a massive $550M fire-hardening project aimed at replacing approximately 2000 wood poles with steel, across 20 transmission line and distribution line segments totaling 150 miles in length. The project also includes undergrounding of distribution circuits, as well as a short segment of 69 kV transmission. Transmission line segments are characterized as mostly having distribution underbuild. Foundations for angle and deadend poles consist mostly micropile foundations, though drilled piers have been installed in some areas where access and subsurface conditions have permitted.

The project is being delivered design-build. ECI is SDG&E’s Owner Engineer. As Owner Engineer, ECI is responsible for the engineering review of the Design Builder’s submittals, consisting of design submittals, foundation submittals, procurement submittals, and Request for Information (RFI) submittals. Design submittals include 30, 60, 90 percent and IFC’s. Foundation submittals consist of micropile specifications, micropile designs, and traditional drilled pier designs. Procurement submittals include the review of all steel poles (point load drawings, design reports, structure shop drawings), conductors, OPGW and pole line hardware.

In addition to reviewing for submittals for technical compliance with specifications, ECI is also responsible for distributing and compiling comments from SDG&E’s project stakeholders including Transmission, Distribution, Civil, Environmental, and Right-of-Way. ECI developed an efficient and effective system to assure that all stakeholders are scheduled, perform their review, and that all comments are compiled and returned to the Design-Builder.