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Construction of the $2.1 billion Bull Run water infrastructure project can resume after a Multnomah County hearings officer gave the go-ahead, the Portland Water Bureau announced.

鈥淎s of Monday, we’re going to start doing minor work to prepare the site, and we anticipate to be in full swing within a month,鈥� Water Bureau spokesman Brandon Zero said Thursday.

Construction of the megaproject has been halted since February, after the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ruled that another hearings officer had not adequately considered community natural resources in approving the project’s conditional use.

Hearings officer Liz Fancher ruled Monday with approval of the project’s conditional use exception.

鈥淭his decision allows us to move forward to protect public health, and to provide resilience to wildfires, landslides, flooding and other natural disasters,鈥� Mayor Keith Wilson stated in a news release on Wednesday. 鈥淭he city is eager to put hundreds of construction tradespeople back to work to complete these critical water system improvements.鈥�

A joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit Corp. is building the project.

The project, which comprises a water filtration plant near the Clackamas County line and a network of pipelines, has faced opposition from a neighborhood group, the Cottrell Community Planning Organization.

The project team is working to meet a Sept. 30, 2027, deadline to deliver filtered water to the Water Bureau’s approximately 1 million customers in the Portland-metro area. The deadline was imposed on the Water Bureau by the Oregon Health Authority after cryptosporidium was repeatedly found in drinking water.