NEWS UPDATES: July 31, 2017

NEWS UPDATES: July 31, 2017

Work will continue along the eastern portion of Pomerado Road this week, so expect more delays. An ongoing project by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to install a new 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission line between Sycamore Canyon and the Penasquitos substation is the reason for these delays. It’s part of the scheduled Segment A1 work, which takes place during daylight hours on weekdays and Saturdays.

For weeks, the traffic light at the intersection of Avenue of Nations and Pomerado Road has been blinking red during daylight construction and flag men have directed traffic, stopping vehicles one way and allowing others to proceed in the opposite direction as construction vehicles maneuvered around the work area, then allowed traffic to proceed in the opposite direction. The process slows down the flow of traffic considerably.

The latest phase of the Miramar Clearwell Improvements project will continue this week. Flag men will direct traffic on Scripps Lake Drive near the the Miramar Lake entrance as work is underway. The construction is scheduled between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. each weekday.

The current work will involve mostly pavement work and the laying of pipeline, but the overall project includes several levels of work at the Miramar Water Treatment Plant. The replacement of Clearwells 1 and 2 will add 6 million gallons of capacity at the facility that serves the water needs for most areas of the city north of Interstate 8. It includes a new chlorine contact chamber with adjoining lift station, an operation and maintenance building, a new security guard shack with surveillance equipment and fences, a pump station electrical building, a pre-fabricated storage building, miscellaneous vaults and structures, and the installation of a 1-megawatt solar power system.

A few more review sessions are available starting Wednesday, Aug. 2 for Scripps Ranch High School (SRHS) students who are able to retake their Advanced Placement tests this summer. The final retesting will be administered next week, Aug. 9 through 10. For further details visit bit.ly/2sRB4Oq.

In late June, the College Board notified the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) that the scores had been invalidated, citing seating irregularities when the AP exams were administered to SRHS students. According to the College Board, tables used for the exams were not the correct size and partitions were placed between the students, which is against the rules. However, the students who finished the exams were not at fault in any way.

SDUSD officials scrambled to notify students, schedule makeup tests and attempt to provide summertime AP exam study sessions.

While none of the students whose scores were affected were in any way responsible for the way the tests were administered, they were left without valid scores and had to cancel summer plans to make themselves available for retesting. Many students were not able adjust their summer commitments and will miss retesting.

Some neighborhoods in Scripps Ranch are expected to observe National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 1. National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer. It sends a statement that residents in the community are working together to be vigilant against crime. National Night Out also enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement.

Communities celebrate National Night Out on the first Tuesday in August. Neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel and exhibits. The Scripps Ranch Civic Association asks that neighborhoods planning to participate in this event register through its website: bit.ly/2uP8Llq.

A two-story wooden structure endured four different earthquake simulations July 14 on the world’s largest outdoor shake table in Scripps Ranch, and it’s still standing before more tests in the coming weeks. The off-campus facility is the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center and the equipment used to simulate an earthquake is called a shake table.

The experiment was conducted by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering. The event was carried out in a nearly hidden location at 10201 Pomerado Road near Camp Elliott, off the eastern end of Pomerado Road.

The goal of the tests is to gather enough data to design wood buildings as tall as 20 stories that do not suffer significant damage during large earthquakes. That is, not only can occupants leave the building unharmed, but they can come back and resume living in the building shortly after a temblor.

“Designing buildings that are safe even during large earthquakes is hugely important. We are doing that – and we are going further. We are working to minimize the amount of time buildings are out of service after large earthquakes. We are also focused on cutting the costs required to repair them,” said professor Shiling Pei, an assistant professor at Colorado School of Mines who is leading the tests funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a variety of industry sponsors.

Based on the insights gleaned from this current set of tests and related research, the team will return to San Diego in 2020 to build, shake, and ultimately burn an earthquake-resilient 10 story timber building on the UC San Diego shake table.