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In the shadow of Mount Hood, 18 miles east of downtown Portland, a massive infrastructure project is moving forward, largely hidden from public view.

Activity is humming at the Bull Run Filtration Project site in east Multnomah County, where a joint venture of water plant specialist MWH Constructors and construction giant Kiewit Corp. broke ground in early June.

They鈥檙e working under a deadline imposed on the Portland Water Bureau by the Oregon Health Authority to deliver filtered water to customers by Sept. 30, 2027 鈥� part of a settlement reached after the parasite cryptosporidium was repeatedly found in Portland鈥檚 water supply. Along with a complementary pipelines project, the entire endeavor is expected to cost approximately $2.13 billion.

It amounts to perhaps the costliest ongoing construction project in Oregon. (The recently completed Portland International Airport main terminal project had a similar $2.1 billion price tag, but the upcoming Interstate Bridge replacement project will cost far more).

When finished, the Bull Run plant will provide up to 135 million gallons a day of fresh water to about 1 million people.

On Tuesday, workers were installing sheet piles to build a retaining wall in one of the pools, finishing work on a 175-foot-long, concrete stormwater flow spreader, assembling a crane, rolling and grading the surface and preparing for additional excavation, among other tasks.

Massive scrapers, loaders and other equipment circled in a choreographed pattern with its own dirt roads and traffic control to ensure safety on the 93-acre site. At one point, eight scrapers were working simultaneously on the mass excavation. The site is now home to about 145 local union craftspeople.

Their chief order of business is to finish excavation before the rainy season sets in. Workers need to dig 5 more feet.

鈥淲e want to get the mass excavation done to get the structure under-drain system in before it starts to drain,鈥� said Thomas Gilman, facility construction manager for the Water Bureau. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot harder in winter.鈥�

Kodiak Pacific Construction is finalizing road upgrades, including utility relocations, road widening and street paving. The joint-venture contractor is working with Stantec on technical coordination and planning.

The project is led by Tom Robertson, a plainspoken MWH construction manager from Orange County, California. He declined to comment, deferring to the Water Bureau and the contractors鈥� corporate headquarters.

鈥淢orale on site is high as the team works toward this significant project for Portland,鈥� MWH-Kiewit spokeswoman Teresa Shada stated in an email.

Water infrastructure already crisscrosses the Cottrell area, east of Gresham, where the headwaters of Bull Run River and Johnson Creek descend toward the population center in Portland. The entire system is gravity-fed, indicating engineering and siting decisions made in the early 20th century continue to hold relevance today.

The filtration plant is crucial for the Water Bureau. The discovery of cryptosporidium in water samples in 2017 led the Oregon Health Authority to revoke a waiver for cryptosporidium treatment that it had granted to the bureau. OHA entered a bilateral compliance agreement with the city in 2017, requiring a new treatment facility.

The project is funded through bonds and customers鈥� payments. The bureau also secured a $726.6 million federal loan at a 1.89 percent interest rate, and it is in the process of closing a second loan through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, spokesman Brandon Zero said.

The treatment facility will be built to modern seismic standards, bureau officials said.

鈥淭he facility will remain operational after an earthquake to continue delivering life-saving water,鈥� Gilman said.

Low-carbon concrete is being used throughout to meet environmental goals.

Some local opposition to the project has sprung up 鈥� mostly from neighbors who object to construction-related noise and traffic. One neighbor posted a sign on the entry road that reads: 鈥淪illy Portland, farmland is for farming!鈥� The water plant site was previously a plant nursery. A neighborhood group did not respond to a request for comment.

Water Bureau officials expressed sympathy with the residents.

鈥淧eople moved out here for a reason 鈥� for peace and quiet, which is hard with the construction traffic,鈥� said Bonita Oswald, a bureau spokeswoman. The bureau is doing everything it can to minimize disruptions to neighbors, she added.

Structures on the site will adhere to a 35-foot height limit imposed by Multnomah County. The construction site temporarily has two soil piles that may be higher than that.

鈥淲e鈥檝e designed the site with berms around the edges and plantings to shield the facility from view,鈥� said Michelle Cheek, deputy program director for the Water Bureau.

This fall, a raw water pipeline will be installed on Lusted Road near the line separating Multnomah and Clackamas counties. Bull Run Conveyance Partners, a joint venture of J.W. Fowler and MWH, is the construction manager/general contractor for the pipelines.