PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles will advertise for bids Friday for a $1.63 million vessel wash-down facility, a key component for the Marine Trades Industrial Park.
Port officials are developing the site at a vacant plywood mill site on the edge of downtown which has already undergone $7 million worth of environmental cleanup that was completed in 2016.
Port commissioners agreed Monday to advertise for the wash-down apparatus, the second largest capital project planned for 2018, two weeks after they agreed to seek bids for 2018’s largest project, the nearby $2.2 million Marine Terminal Stormwater Treatment Project.
Port commissioners’ board President Connie Beauvais said Wednesday the wash-down facility, which will be completed by the end of October, is vital to development of the 18-acre site, which underwent a $7 million environmental cleanup following decades of operation as a plywood mill beginning in 1941.
“I believe it is very important to the development of that site and hope it will entice some businesses,” Beauvais said.
“We don’t have anyone knocking on our door yet.”
Port commissioners are hoping that once the wash-down facility is installed, “that will help our marketing ability for the whole site,” Beauvais said.
Westport Shipyard on Marine Drive and Platypus Marine on North Cedar off the industrial thoroughfare will both benefit from the facility, as they both will utilize their 500- and 300-ton lifts from a pier next to Terminal 1 to carry vessels to the wash-down area next to Platypus, port officials said.
“In general, we think it’s positive,” David Kane, Platypus’ sales and marketing director, said Wednesday.
“It allows other vendors to come in and open up shop.”
The original construction cost estimate for the wash-down facility was $2.46 million, higher than the budgeted amount.
Cost reductions included deferring purchase and installation of a wash-water treatment facility in favor of transporting the effluent to an existing nearby port treatment site.
Port commissioners also decided to build a 93-foot concrete wash-pad instead of a 175-foot wash pad that could more easily accommodate Westport’s 164-foot yachts.
Vessels longer than 93 feet can be washed over the 93-foot pad but must be moved with a travel-lift during wash-down to complete the process, Beauvais said.
“I’d love to have one pad and be done with it,” she said of building the larger pad.
“We are going to have to justify the increased cost for the longer vessels.”
Chris Hartman, director of engineering for the port, said he will make a recommendation to the commissioners on pad length after bids are received.
“It would definitely be better,” he said of the longer pad.
“You just have to weigh the costs.”
The shorter pad would be built in a way that would allow it to be lengthened at a later date, Hartman added.
He said cost savings might be realized if the same contractor builds the wash-down facility and the water treatment project, which will be completed by September.
Bids for that project are due May 16, two weeks earlier than the wash-down facility.
Deciding on the smaller pad would subtract $370,000 from the project, yielding a $1.14 million base bid for the project.
The bid documents published Friday will include an additive bid for 82 additional feet to reach the 175-foot length at a cost estimate of $370,000, which would boost construction costs to $1.51 million if commissioners decide to go in that direction.
Additional costs include $45,000 to revise the bid documents, $40,000 for construction administration and $30,000 for a Connex Box, a large metal cargo container.
The highest rate of growth for mega-yachts is for boats over 150 feet, according to a 2015 “Assessment of Boatyard/Shipyard Options” study prepared by Kenmore-based BST Associates, an economic research and strategic planning company.
Puget Sound boatyards are facing challenges to expansion from encroachment by non-industrial uses, according to the study.
“Port Angeles could potentially attract new firms,” it said.
Hartman said port and city officials are working on a utility plan for the marine trades site for water and electric services that would not likely be installed until a major tenant has committed to occupying it.
“The lessee would build a building specific to their own needs and the port would prepare and provide utilities,” he said.
The five-year capital plan anticipates the port spending $2.5 million on developing the site in 2019 and $3.5 million in 2020.
Those expenditures “are completely dependent” on having a tenant or tenants committed to setting up shop at the site, Hartman said.
The economic impact of the marine trades site, at a full build-out of 26 acres, is 250 direct jobs and $11.5 million income, 461 total jobs and 17.6 million income, and $324,000-$785,000 in annual gross revenues to the port, the BST study said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.
