Scotty’s Castle Utilities Restoration

In October of 2015 heavy rains around Scotty’s Castle at Death Valley National Park resulted in significant flood damage to the utility systems serving Scotty’s Castle. The NPS worked to restore the utilities so the area could be reopened to the public. While a temporary non-potable water system was brought online to provide non-potable running water to the area, a permanent solution for providing potable water was needed. The onsite wastewater treatment and disposal system had a significant portion of the leach field eroded away by the flood waters leaving this system non-functional. Until the onsite wastewater treatment and disposal system could be replaced, portable sanitation facilities were used. The electrical distribution system at Scotty’s Castle was non-functional and required detailed inspection to determine what repairs and replacement work would be done to allow the system to be brought back online.

On May 4th, 2016, the NPS and HECO Engineers conducted a scoping trip for the three utility projects. In July 2016 HECO Engineers submitted the 100% Final Scoping Trip letter report to the NPS, and the Title I Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) work was completed in March 2017. A Value Analysis using Choosing By Advantages (VA/CBA) was held at the Death Valley National Park headquarters conference room on February 1st and 2nd, 2017, identifying the preferred alternatives for: 1) the septic system, 2) the electrical system, and 3) the water system’s water source, 4) the replacement roof for the 40,000-gallon historic potable water tank, and 5) the water system’s water line alignment from the water tanks down to the Scotty’s Castle complex. The final Title I PER included the VA/CBA report covering the septic system, electrical system, and the water system. The Title II services goal was to prepare the Construction Documents (CDs) package, for the five preferred alternatives listed above, as described in the final Title I PER and the Title II CDs SOW.

HECO Engineers assisted the NPS with Title III construction management services and will prepare the as-constructed drawing set upon project completion at Scotty’s Castle. HECO completed all services associated with this task order with HECO staff members with the exception of geotechnical, electrical and survey subcontracts.

Services Provided by HECO Engineers:

• Title I Preliminary Engineering
• Title II Report
• Title III Construction Management
• Condition Assessment 
• Project Design
• Civil Engineering
• SCADA design