SRP team keeps Arizona flowing

Crew repairs equipment for water, power utility

Salt River Project is building an 80foot-tall pipe next to the Ken McDonald Golf Course in Tempe that will help push water to the South Mountain area. The pipe is the latest job tackled by SRP’s 140-worker Mechanical Construction and Maintenance team.

The SRP team is responsible for repairing and replacing all manner of equipment across Arizona for the water and power utility. Workers might find themselves traveling to Page to fix electrical equipment at a coal plant or to Apache Lake to build pipes more than 200 feet underwater for a dam.

The team often responds to emergency calls when a critical piece of equipment fails.

“Where we really shine is being able to mobilize and react,” supervisor Gordon Fiacco said. “The guys take a lot of pride in building everything in-house.”

The team, which reduces its staff to about 100 when major power-plant maintenance slows down in the summer, has gone two years without an accident or day lost to injury, manager Brian Heath said.

“The best feeling is when you get an emergency call and you get a plant back online,” Heath said.

The standpipe being replaced in Tempe is about 50 years old and had begun to leak. The pipe is 7 feet around and is used to create pressure and push water uphill from the Highline Canal to a lateral canal a mile away.