ALAMEDA, Calif. (KRON) — In Alameda, East Bay Mud is installing a new massive water pipeline that engineers say will withstand the next big earthquake. It will replace an existing 80-year-old pipe officials feared would fail in a large shaker.

As it stands now, a large earthquake could have devastating effects on the City of Alameda’s water resources. That’s why a more than a half-mile-long high-density water pipeline is going underground.

It replaces the existing pipe currently bringing water from Oakland to the island which is eight decades old.

East Bay Municipal Utility District Director of Engineering and Construction Jimi Yoloye says it’s vulnerable to quakes.

“Alameda is an island. There is no storage, no water storage on the island of Alameda,” Yoloye said. “All Alameda’s water comes over from reservoirs that are located in Oakland and Berkeley. And, so this is significant. If the existing pipelines, which are vulnerable to failure during an earthquake, if they were to fail, Alameda would be out of water.”

Yoloye says the new pipe — 32 inches in diameter — will be installed through a borehole drilled under the Oakland inner harbor. This phase of the project will be wrapped up this weekend.

By the end of the year, it will be connected to the existing water networks across the estuary.

“This is an important project for us,” said Yoloye. “We think it’s necessary for to replace our aging infrastructure to maintain the resiliency of our water system, and also to enhance the sustainability for the future.”

That includes keeping the existing pipe underground, which East Bay Mud hopes to repurpose into a recycled water line.

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“Recycled water offers us the opportunity to have sort of a drought-proof supply,” said spokesperson Andrea Pook. “And, so we’re going to be looking at that as a possibility to serve Alameda.”

East Bay Mud says customers should not experience any disruptions in service.