PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles will exceed its own budget allocation by about $2 million to make full repairs to Terminal 1 — where the big oil tankers and other ships tie up — under a single contract rather than spacing out the spending.
“We felt this was the right time,” Commissioner Jim Hallett said Tuesday, when he and fellow Commissioners John Calhoun and Colleen McAleer approved the project.
Hallett said the port will not take any of five optional deductions from the winning base bid of $4,500,333 from Legacy Contracting of Stayton, Ore.
The deductions could have trimmed the project to $3,639,256, also the low bid made by Legacy. Other bidders included Quigg Brothers of Aberdeen and Vortex Marine of Oakland, Calif.
“It’s prudent to do all that you can,” said Chris Hartman, the port’s director of engineering.
Terminal 1 “is worth substantially more than the cost of repairs,” Hallett said.
Moreover, he said, it would be difficult to procure state and federal permits to rebuild it.
Work at the terminal at the end of Cedar Street, where oceangoing ships tie up for topside repairs and where the Marine Spill Response Corp. moors the W.C. Park Responder, will include:
■ Structural repairs to ensure that mobile cranes can maneuver around the dock, a difficult task in the pier’s current condition.
■ Replacing two breasting dolphins — pilings that act as fenders — with a single structure.
■ Repairing a head-line dolphin where ships tie up at the northeast end of the pier.
A $1.5 million state economic development grant will ease some of the financial impact. It and $2.19 million in port funds will produce about $3.68 million for the project in 2015.
“This has a significant impact on our reserves,” Calhoun said, “on public money that’s locally the public’s money.”
Calhoun referred to a suggestion at a last week’s meeting of the Clallam County Opportunity Fund Advisory Board that the port spend its own resources — instead of a $1 million Opportunity Fund grant — to finish the Composites Recycling Technology Center at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
“This is why we build up our reserves,” said Hallett, “so when these projects come our way, we are able to take care of them in a fiscally responsible manner.”
The port’s other cash-intensive project include stormwater improvements along the waterfront and cleanup of the site of the former KPly plywood mill at 439 Marine Drive.
Port officials will inquire if Legacy Contracting also can use its heavy machinery while on site to remove the port’s surplus chip loader.
“We rarely get that kind of equipment into our harbor,” Calhoun said.
The port also will pay a total of $593,030 to BergerABAM consulting services of Seattle to manage the Terminal 1 redevelopment, increased from $275,000 by the ports deciding against the deductions.
In other action Tuesday, port commissioners:
■ Approved a $26,934 contract to reroof three buildings at the composites technology campus at the airport with Nations Roof NW company of Kent.
McAleer asked port staff to determine why no local contractors had bid on the project to seal the metal roofs, although Hartman said local contractors had been told about the project.
One local roofing company had requested specifications but didn’t bid, he said.
■ Spent $585,000 for a 1999 Wagner L80 log stacker from a Chehalis company to replace a 48-year-old machine.
With rental income from the equipment, said Karen Goschen, port finance director, the return on investment on the stacker will come to 10.4 percent annually and its cost will be repaid in about 9½ years.
■ Raised the payout to Alderbrook Quarry of Chehalis by $34,409 to $169,944 for demolition of concrete on the KPly site.
The 24.5 percent increase arose when excavators discovered 2,178 tons more material than engineers had expected.
The crushed concrete, stored beneath tarpaulins at the site of the mill that also operated as PenPly has been judged free of arsenic and suitable for fill in the continuing cleanup operation.
The port, with help from a $1.5 million state Model Toxics Control Act grant, is paying up front for the most of the estimated $5.4 million cleanup while seeking damages from former mill owners and polluters.
The 19-acre site is considered a prime marine trades industrial location.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
