PORT ANGELES — Either of two Clallam County electrical companies will win a subcontract when Olympic Medical Center chooses a general contractor for its new medical office building Tuesday.
Olympic Electric Co. Inc., 4230 S. Tumwater Truck Route, is the subcontractor for lowest-bidding general contracstor Kirtley-Cole Associates of Everett, which underbid its closest competitor by more than $200,000 for the 13-month project.
Shamp Electrical Co. of Sequim would subcontract electrical work if that next-lowest bidder, Dawson Construction of Bellingham, is selected. That would happen only if Kirtley-Cole fails what hospital CEO Eric Lewis called a “due diligence” review of references.
Neither the value of electrical work nor the number of jobs the contracts would provide was available.
OMC has required the general contractor to have built no less than three medical facilities costing at least $3 million each, Lewis said.
Kirtley-Cole has performed work for Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle and the University of Washington, according to Eric Lewis, hospital CEO.
“They do an incredible amount of healthcare construction,” he said.
“We feel good about them but we are going to spend few days doing due diligence.”
Hospital commissioners will gather in a special meeting at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to award the contract, almost certainly for $15.6 million to Kirtley-Cole. The meeting will be held in Linkleter Hall in the basement of the hospital, 939 Caroline St.
OMC’s new two-story office/clinic building and parking will occupy the block bordered by Race, Caroline, Washington and Georgiana streets.
No bids came from general contractors in Clallam County. Besides Olympic Electric — which was named by three of the four overall bidders — Shamp was the only other subcontractor from the North Olympic Peninsula.
Other firms — none of them local — will subcontract for heating/ventilation/air conditioining work, for plumbing, and for steel fabrication and erection.
Hospital officials opened the bids Tuesday and have spent the intervening week checking Kirtley-Cole’s qualifications.
If commissioners approve four contract alternatives — two for parking, one for a patio atop the medical office building, one for wood accents to the present hospital — Kirtley-Cole’s bid could climb to $16.25 million.
That still is nearly $100,000 less than Dawson’s bids, including alternatives.
Other bidders included Forma Construction Co. of Tumwater, whose base bid exceeded $17 million, and Graham Construction of Seattle and Spokane, which bid $16.7 million.
Lewis said, although OMC can’t control its general contractor’s hiring, he hoped many jobs will go to Clallam County residents.
“I think a lot of the work will be subcontracted to local people because it’s less expensive.”
First stage of the work will be demolishing former medical office buildings across Caroline Street from the hospital. OMC owns the buildings.
Asked if they could be moved to other sites to provide affordable housing, Lewis said, “I think these buildings are immovable. They’re slab on grade.
“Most of them are in the 1950s vintage. They’re in very bad shape.”
Lewis called the new building “a real game changer for what we can do for our community. It’s critical to get a Port Angeles walk-in clinic (that will be part of the new facility.”
Meanwhile, work nears completion on expansion of the emergency department at OMC. A ribbon cutting could be scheduled within a month, Lewis said.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
