Alviso Salt Pond Levees

On this project, Yerba Buena repaired portions of the deteriorating Alviso Levee system at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, near the cities of Sunnyvale and San Jose.

The levees separate former commercial salt production ponds from the waters of the bay. The evaporation ponds, which support many species of foraging water birds, were gradually being reconnected to the bay and returned to their former status as tidal wetlands. Premature levee breaches, however, could be catastrophic to fish, birds, and other wildlife.

Using land-based equipment, we added rock protection to the faces of eight levees, installed dirt fill to raise the height of some of them, and raised the grade on the trail at one levee. On the shoreline of one levee, we installed road base to repair the driving surface, which provided shared access to Moffett Field and Fish & Wildlife Service facilities.

Yerba Buena saved the government more than $100,000 by locating approximately 5,000 yards of free dirt and recycled concrete for use on the project. The excavator we used on this job utilized vegetable-based hydraulic fluid, so that any spills would not pollute the environment.