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The city will be awarding much more in contracts for sewer projects over the next 12 months than the previous year.

The Bureau of Environmental Services is preparing to bid $104 million in projects through next July. The 15 projects are valued between $3 million and $12 million.

The figure is $52 million over last year, but it’s still just the “tip of the iceberg,” according to Bill Ryan, chief engineer at BES.

“That’s a lot for one year, but it’s a number that’s been slowly moving up,” he said.

City engineers are finalizing plans for two major treatment plant updates ahead of bidding. The Tyron Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will go to bid soon, will involve about $80 million in improvements. Staff is still preparing construction documents for the Columbia Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will be valued about the same, Ryan estimates.

Currently under construction for BES is the $2.2 million Bybee-Glenwood project to install fish-friendly culverts. And this month the council approved contracts valued around $10 million to upgrade sewer facilities as part of two projects: the Terwilliger Boulevard Sanitary Sewer Extension and the Humboldt Sewer Rehabilitation.

Last year, approximately $52 million worth of work on collection systems was completed in Portland.

Resources are being put to repair and replace out-of-date infrastructure. About a third of the city’s 2,500 miles of sewer pipe is more than 80 years old.

Ryan said the upcoming projects will employ different sewer construction methods, and most will be design-bid-build, with the lowest bidder being successful.