The Sylmar-based specialty construction company, Tutor Perini Corp., on Monday announced it has been awarded a government construction contract valued at approximately $178 million to begin a capacity correction project at the Friant-Kern canal.
The joint venture between Tutor Perini and Brosamer & Wall Inc. of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area was awarded by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and is expected to begin construction next month. The Friant-Kern Canal delivers water to one million acres of farmland and provides drinking water to thousands of San Joaquin Valley residents.
The canal begins at the Friant Dam, a reservoir on the San Joaquin River north of Fresno. It flows 152 miles south along the San Joaquin Valley and ends at the Kern River near Bakersfield. The project will restore water conveyance capacity in a 33-mile section near Visalia, where it has been restricted due to land subsidence in the area that has occurred over the past decades.
The conveyance capacity restoration is anticipated to increase water flow capacity from its current 1,600 cubic feet per second to the original 4,000 cubic feet. Substantial completion of the project is anticipated by June 2024.
Shares of Tutor Perini Corp. (TPC) closed down 2 cents, or a fraction of a percent, to $12.85 on the Nasdaq Tuesday, a day when that exchange also closed down a fraction of a percent.