Low bid increases likelihood Brightwater will make budget
A contractor’s unexpectedly low bid on a key component of the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant will help keep the project cost under $1.8 billion, at least for now, King County Wastewater Treatment Director Christie True said Wednesday.
Officials had worried that the contract for construction of solids-handling facilities would exceed the budget. Instead, the apparent low bidder, Kiewit Pacific, submitted a $168 million bid, $25 million below the estimate.
The only other bidder, Parsons RCI, proposed to do the job for $232 million.
True said she hopes to sign a contract with Kiewit Pacific and to issue a notice in January that construction may begin.
It is the last major contract on the most costly public-works project the county has ever undertaken. The sewage plant north of Woodinville will treat waste from northern King and southern Snohomish counties starting in March 2011.
“This is really very good news to us,” True said. “We had a lot of concern about this market that we’re in right now, so it was very hard to predict where the bids would come in.”
County officials expect it to cost $1.76 billion, while an auditor’s consultant, R.W. Beck, estimates the cost at $1.83 billion to $1.86 billion.
Construction is under way on a portion of the treatment plant and a 13-mile pipeline that will carry treated sewage into Puget Sound. Beck has warned the Metropolitan King County Council that the deep underground pipe “is a major construction risk” because of the possibility of unexpected obstructions.
Beck earlier warned of a significant risk that bids for the solids-handling buildings would exceed engineers’ estimates.
Wastewater officials originally intended to have Hoffman Construction build the entire treatment plant, but they were forced to split the job when the builder couldn’t obtain a bond large enough to cover the entire job.
Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com