The Portland City Council last week accepted a bid of approximately $7.4 million from Iron Horse Excavation Inc. for the Downtown Old Town Market Madison Sewer Rehabilitation Project.

The SW Market-Madison Sewer Project, designed by the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services, will include repairing 11,720 feet of aging public sewer pipes from SW Market to SW Madison streets between SW Naito Parkway and SW 13th Avenue, repair or replace maintenance holes, repair or replace active sewer laterals for individual property connections and more. According to the project’s website, the pipes require repairs to reduce the risks of basement flooding and sewage releases to downtown buildings and streets.

Bids for construction of the project opened in December. The lowest responsive bid was from Iron Horse Excavation Inc., dba Oxbow Construction, a female-owned firm in Troutdale.

The city’s aspirational 20 percent subcontractor and supplier utilization goal applied to this project. Iron Horse Excavation Inc. is committed to subcontract 20.72 percent to contractors certified by the State’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID).

These subcontractors include Alvin L. Hall for hauling services; Brothers Concrete Cutting Inc. for saw cutting; Chick of All Trades LLC for flagging; JNM Services LLC for traffic control; Kodiak Pacific Construction Co. for asphalt paving; LCP LLC for rodent control; Nuwave Concrete for concrete; and Sambar Construction LLC for sewer work.

Iron Horse Excavation will self-perform 79.28 percent of the work.

The Downtown Old Town (DTOT) Market Madison Sewer Rehabilitation Project is part of BES’ Large Scale Sewer Rehabilitation Program within the DTOT Program. It is a multi-year and multi-million-dollar investment to assess the condition and capacity of the aging public sewer system serving Portland’s Downtown and Old Town neighborhoods.

Construction is expected to start this spring, likely in April, and will take about a year and a half to complete.

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City of Portland workers are in the midst of performing the most substantial upgrades to the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant within the past 50 years, the Bureau of Environmental Services touted.

The Secondary Treatment Expansion Program (STEP) involves replacement of exhausted equipment and buildings, addition of seismic resilience to key portions of the plant, and other work to protect water quality. The total investment is expected to be more than $400 million, according to BES.

“Every Portland resident, business and visitor depends on the treatment plant operating continuously every day, throughout the year, and through all weather conditions,” Commissioner Mingus Mapps stated. “These upgrades will help continue reliable service that protects our environment, public health and worker safety. I am pleased that these improvements will protect ratepayer investments by maintaining reliability and increasing efficiency.”

Key projects within STEP include: deconstruction of aging equipment and buildings (with more than 90 percent of construction waste recycled); construction of two new, seismically reinforced clarifiers; construction of a new, seismically resilient solids handling building; restoration and cleaning of eight aeration basins; and construction of a new office building with a maintenance shop (at Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold standards).

BES is working with its contractors to encourage and cultivate a more diverse workforce in the construction trades. The bureau’s project manager for STEP is a woman, and the program itself is the first in the city with a project-specific Community Benefits Agreement – a contractual strategy intended to increase workforce and contracting diversity.

Also, STEP is implementing use of the  (Respect, Inclusion, Safety and Equity in the construction trades) program to provide workers with the tools and support necessary to create and maintain a safe, inclusive, and productive environment for everyone. BES, its contractor, community members and tradespeople meet monthly to review data and provide advice on the employment of women and people of color in apprenticeships and other roles, and discuss other participation opportunities as STEP progresses.

Complete construction of STEP projects is expected to wrap up in 2024.

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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.

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