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The passage of Portland Public Schools‘ 2017 bond measure this month means聽a mint’s worth of new money in the construction ecosystem over the next half-decade. This will surely have a huge impact on the construction industry.

Growing firms are preparing to enter the public sector for the first time. Others are puzzling how to expand while contending with ongoing material and labor shortages.

The $790 million bond, the largest in state history, will include four big-ticket school projects, plus pipe and fixture replacements and other smaller, health and life safety improvements at all 90 PPS facilities. And it’s not the only bond out there; a number of programs passed in May聽or are ongoing from prior elections.

Professionals say it’s difficult to imagine work in the public sector 鈥� which is already cruising 鈥� slowing any time before 2020.

鈥�2019 is going to be a pretty busy year; we’re going to be hot and heavy at that point,鈥� said Brian Shoemaker, senior project manager for P&C Construction. 鈥淲hat’s going to be interesting and challenging for us is just managing all that work.鈥�

Major builder聽Andersen Construction will likely go after one of the bond’s big-ticket projects, according to Senior Project Manager Erin Storlie. Tackling a catalog of projects with diverse funding mechanisms helps ensure long-term stability. Andersen even recently got into the development game at the behest of third-generation president Joel Andersen.

Private development deals come together in seemingly myriad permutations, whereas bond money聽is set aside for specific projects. That’s one reason to pursue public work, Storlie said. Another is the聽company is seeing fewer private job opportunities 鈥� specifically housing.

鈥淚t’s nice that something else is coming up when something else is kind of receding a little bit,鈥� Storlie said. 鈥淭his fits well with our model of having a backlog of real stable work.鈥�

Midsize companies like P&C, which does about half its work in the K-12 sector, will try to expand while battling ongoing and extensive labor and material shortages. In particular, the firm reports difficulty finding professionals with around five to seven years of experience.

鈥淚t’s easy to find new people coming out of school, inexperienced people, both on the construction and design side,鈥� Shoemaker said. 鈥淎nd you can also find those seasoned, experienced people that have 15-years-plus, because they’ve weathered the recession. It’s that gap in between that we’re having trouble finding.鈥�

An abundance of work has led to material scarcity and scheduling headaches. Lately, manufacturers are having trouble getting gypsum to make drywall.

鈥淏ut it’s not limited to one product,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s just that lead times are getting longer. What used to take six to eight weeks, now takes 12 to 14 weeks.鈥�

With so much work now available, firms can be聽choosy聽with regard to project owners. P&C prefers an owner that embraces the construction manager-general contractor delivery method. About 90 percent of its volume is performed this way.聽And firms like hard-bid specialist Todd Construction will have greater freedom either to stick to its established business model, or branch out into CM-GC (which it also has experience with).

Todd Construction is wrapping up work on Faubion School in Northeast Portland, collaborating with PPS and Concordia University, which borders the school. The experience has been a good one, vice president Ken Dixon said, meaning the firm, which prioritizes working with a good team, will pursue more PPS work.

Several small and midsize contractors said their participation in the 2017 program will hinge on the 鈥渕anageability鈥� of the bid packages. Packages too large may present unappealing risk for some companies; those too small may not be worth the effort.

鈥淲e’ve got to do a good study to get those down to manageable packages,鈥� said Ken Fisher, program manager for Heery, owner’s representative for PPS’ 2012 bond. 鈥淏ut then it comes down to what’s the definition of 鈥榤anageable,’ and what’s that sweet spot for some of these contractors?鈥�

What’s unique about PPS’ 2017 bond 鈥� and the reason it is so large 鈥� is the sizable sum dedicated to health and life safety upgrades across the district. Around $150 million will be spread around for spot fixes at the district’s 90 facilities (the remaining $640 million will go to the four major projects.)

For years the district’s approach apparently was to select a few large builders and leave it to them to spread the wealth among their sphere of subcontractors, according to Todd Hess, president of Todd Hess Construction. This left a lot of people feeling left out.

鈥淭he feedback that the industry has given them is they really need to break it up in smaller pieces that are more approachable to more companies,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they heed that advice, I think a lot more companies will be able to get some of that work.鈥�

PPS is preparing to release an RFP to prequalify firms to bid on job order proposals for water pipe and fixture replacement and potential partial pipe replacement districtwide.聽This could help get smaller firms in on the action, according to聽Emily Courtnage, director of contracting and purchasing for PPS.

The district is still providing students at many facilities bottled water due to fear of lead in the drinking water pipes.

鈥淭he 2017 bond will get us off bottled water,鈥� Courtnage said.

Another way the district hopes to get more small firms to participate is by encouraging large firms to partner with smaller ones. A well-known example is large builder Andersen Construction partnering with Colas Construction, a large minority-owned firm. That joint venture is nearly ready to break ground on the modernization of Grant High School.

The district has equity goals intended to get smaller firms to participate and grow larger. For projects over $200,000, builders have to comply with the district’s workforce equity requirements. That means 20 percent of qualified hours must be worked by apprentices.

Prime contractors also must meet PPS’ lofty business equity goal of 18 percent of total dollars going to COBID-certified firms (COBID is Oregon’s catch-all term for businesses that are woman- or minority-owned, are emerging small businesses or owned by a service-disabled military veteran).

It’s likely these goals will remain聽merely aspirations聽throughout the 2017 program. The minority participation is at about 50 percent achievement on the 2012 bond,聽said to be聽due to the volume of work available to firms and the relatively small number of COBID firms available to do the work.