Question:How much water does each pump deliver?
Answer:
Approximately 1,000 cubic feet per second, cfs. This is equal to 450,000 gallons per minute, gpm or 1,985 acre feet per day.

Question: What is the total capacity of the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant?
Answer: The Tracy Pumping Plant can deliver 4,300 cfs, cubic feet per second. This is equal to about 2,000,000 gpm or 8,500 acre-feet per day

Question: How are the pumps powered?
Answer: The pumps are powered by 25,000 horsepower motors. The motors are 13,800 Volt AC motors, rotating at 180 RPM.

Question: How thick are the walls (C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant)?
Answer: The walls for the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant vary from 2 1/2 feet to 4 feet in thickness.

Question: How much concrete was used to build the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant?
Answer: About 33,300 cubic yards of concrete were poured in forms for the building, enough to build a two-lane highway from Tracy to Chico.

https://sldmwa.org/images/HistoricalPhotos/tracy_03.jpg
Excavating for the Jones Pumping Plant

Question:How much dirt was excavated to build the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant?

Answer: The C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant required excavating 450,000 cubic yards of earth.

 Question: How much weight can the Gantry crane pick up?
Answer: The Gantry crane located on top of the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant is capable of picking-up the combined weight of 50 automobiles or three General Sherman tanks, or even a medium-sized railroad locomotive.

Question: What is the capacity of the three discharge tubes?
Answer: The discharge pipe lines from the pumping plant are 15 feet in diameter (inside dimension).  The three pipes required an excavation of 112,000 cubic yards of earth, and the combined length of the three lines is 14,454 feet.  They have a combined volume of 19,200,000 gallons or 58 1/2-acre feet, enough water to cover 58 1/2-acres one foot in depth.

Question: How much does a section of discharge pipe weigh?
Answer: The weight of each section of pipe (12 feet long x 15 feet diameter) ranges from 62 to 69 tons.

Question: How much steel reinforcement was used in the construction of the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant?
Answer: The steel required to build the pumping plant amounted to 2,900 tons or enough steel to build a railroad track from Tracy to Modesto.

Question: How is the foundation for the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant supported?
Answer: To hold the tremendous weight of the concrete, steel, pumps, and motors, 2,953 timber piles, 400 feet long, were driven into the ground.  The pilings used, if stood end to end, would stretch 20 miles into the sky.