PORT ANGELES — A Federal Way contractor submitted the lowest of seven bids that Clallam County commissioners opened Tuesday for the long-planned Carlsborg sewer.
Pacific Civil & Infrastructure’s asking price was $9.03 million, which is about $2 million less than the engineer’s estimate, said Bob Martin, public works administrative director.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” Martin said.
The public bid opening kicked off a monthlong review of the proposals and the project’s financing.
No company based on the North Olympic Peninsula bid on the project, although county officials have said local subcontractors will likely be involved in its construction.
After announcing the bid prices, commissioners referred the proposals to public works officials and the county finance committee.
Finance committee
The finance committee is scheduled to meet March 24 to discuss, among other things, financing for the Carlsborg sewer.
“We’ll review the recommendations, both from public works and the county finance committee,” Commissioner Chairman Mike Chapman said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The goal is either the very last meeting of March or the very first meeting of April to award the contract.”
Construction of the sewer system is scheduled to begin in mid-April.
The selected contractor will build a pump station along Carlsborg Road near the Olympic Discovery Trail crossing and lay miles of sewer pipes that will transport sewage from the unincorporated urban growth area to the treatment plant in Sequim.
Commissioners announced two prices for each bid, a “schedule A” base price and a grand total that includes work on private property that Clallam County will be reimbursed for.
Bid details
Here are the combined totals of the seven bids, with base amounts in parentheses, rounded to the nearest $10,000:
■ Pacific Civil & Infrastructure, Federal Way — $9.03 million ($8.77 million).
■ Tapani Inc., Battle Ground — $9.91 million ($9.59 million).
■ Imco Construction, Ferndale — $10.09 million ($9.83 million).
■ Strider Construction Co. Inc., Bellingham — $10.14 million ($9.81 million).
■ Interwest Construction Inc., Burlington — $10.27 million ($9.87 million).
■ Scarsella Bros. Inc., Seattle — $10.58 million ($10.26 million).
■ Ceccanti Inc., Tacoma — $10.91 million — ($10.56 million).
The base estimate alone was about $10.73 million, Martin said.
“These bids will be referred to public works,” Chapman said at the meeting.
“They’ll review them. Then it will be taken to the county finance committee, where the numbers will be reviewed again.”
Clallam County has already spent about $3.1 million on the sewer, which has been in planning since the late 1980s.
State loan
Most of the construction will be funded by a $10 million loan from the state Public Works Trust Fund.
The loan will be repaid from the county’s Opportunity Fund for infrastructure projects over 30 years at 0.25 percent interest.
The interest rate would double if the system is not operational by April 1, 2017.
Clallam County also has $1.43 million available for the project in a special fund.
The contractor will have 225 working days to complete the work, Martin has said.
If the low bids hold up to scrutiny, they will negate what was previously projected to be an $819,000 shortfall for the Carlsborg sewer.
Timber rep absent
Commissioner Bill Peach was absent from the meeting because he was serving as the timber county representative on the state Board of Natural Resources, which meets the first Tuesday of the month in Olympia.
“Yesterday, Commissioner Peach did not ask for any items to be pulled off the agenda,” Chapman said for the record.
“He agreed to have all these items voted on even in his absence.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
