The Portland Water Bureau recently obtained the largest Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan ever from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The $727 million, low-interest loan is expected to cover at least half of the cost of the Bull Run Filtration Project, which consists of three infrastructure improvements that are intended to provide the Portland area with clean water and a seismically resilient supply system by 2027.

“You’re going to be improving the environment; you’re doing to be reducing lead and increasing drinking water quality for over 1 million residents while adding over 4,000 jobs,” Radhika Fox, the EPA‘s acting assistant administrator for water, stated during a virtual press conference. “It is everything we want to see in our communities.”

The first of the three projects will produce a new corrosion control facility at the existing Lusted Hill water treatment facility east of Gresham. Ground was broken on this in fall 2020. Highlights include construction of a new building to contain the corrosion control treatment system, a water utility water pump station, and associated piping and support systems. Work is being carried out by Colorado-based general contractor MWH Constructors and expected to be complete by April 2022, ahead of a federal regulatory deadline.

The primary purpose of this project, said Michelle Cheek, the deputy program director for the Bull Run Filtration Project and an engineering supervisor for the Water Bureau, is to make low-alkaline Bull Run water less corrosive to the copper and lead solder pipes found in some home and building plumbing – primarily systems constructed between 1970 and 1985.

The new facility will treat water to raise its alkalinity and help it meet new regulatory standards.

“The existing facility is a chemical feed facility, where they add caustic soda and chemicals to treat the water,” Cheek said. “(The caustic soda system) will be decommissioned once the new facilities are constructed. It’s a pretty process-mechanical focused project.”

The second, larger project will be construction of a new water filtration facility on city-owned property half of a mile south of the Lusted Hill one. When the new facility is brought online, it will mark the end of unfiltered water for Portland water customers.

“We will consolidate all of our treatment facilities here,” said David Peters, the program director for the Bull Run Filtration Project. “The disinfection we do in the watershed with chlorine will move to this site.”

Granular media filtration will be used to remove cryptosporidium and other contaminants, and the new treatment plant will be able to filter up to 145 million gallons of water per day. Planning began in 2017 as part of the regulatory compliance schedule and is now nearly complete. Design work is set to finish in late 2022, with construction scheduled to wrap up by 2027.

“Normally a utility would have done a number of years of planning,” Peters said. “But we had to consolidate that into our compliance schedule because we did not have a plan to do this.”

Some of the firms involved include Brown and Caldwell (program management), and Stantec and Carollo Engineers (predesign and finalization of details for the design). The joint venture of MWH Constructors and Kiewit will serve as construction manager/general contractor.

Finally, the third project will be installation of pipelines for water from the new filtration facility and corrosion control facility. Jacobs of California will design the pipelines. The Water Bureau is likely to issue in April a request for proposals for a CM/GC to handle the project, Peters said.

“We hope to have them on board by the end of the year,” he said.

The new filtration facility and the pipelines will be designed to modern seismic standards and become key components of a system designed to function even after events such as earthquakes, wildfires or storms add contaminants to water.

The Bull Run Treatment Project will generate an estimated 4,700 to 7,500 jobs, with 28 percent of journeyman work hours and 31 percent of apprentice work hours going to minorities and women in the skilled trades. The projects will deliver an estimated $200 million in contracts to disadvantaged, minority-owned, woman-owned, service-disabled-veteran-owned, and emerging small businesses.

The interest rate for the WIFIA loan will be just 1.89 percent. The loan will save the city an estimated $247.5 million in comparison to typical market financing. A combination of revenue bonds and Portland Water Bureau system funds also will be used to pay for the project.

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The city of Portland has received proposals from three contractors interested in building the Bull Run Filtration Plant, a water treatment facility – estimated to cost between $550 million and $650 million to construct.

A request for proposals for a construction manager/general contractor for the project drew submissions from Hoffman Construction, MWH-Kiewit Joint Venture of Hillsboro and Arizona-based Sundt Construction.

The facility will be constructed on a 90-acre area of unincorporated Multnomah County near the Gresham border. Granular media filtration will be used to daily treat between 145 million and 160 million gallons of water from the Bull Run watershed.

The project will include construction of an administration building, a clear well measuring up to 16 million gallons in volume, a mechanical dewatering facility and other support buildings. Earthwork could require exporting more than a million cubic yards of dirt.

Stantec Consulting Services Inc. is designing the filtration facility, and the city has hired Brown and Caldwell to provide program management and support services. The plant is the major component of the Bull Run Filtration Projects – an estimated $820 million effort that will also include construction of pipelines carrying raw and finished water into and out of the facility. The pipeline work will be designed and constructed under separate contracts.

The city earlier this year issued an RFP for design services on the pipeline portion of the project, and on April 20 issued an intent to negotiate and award to Jacobs Engineering Group.

The project is being carried out by the Portland Water Bureau at the direction of the Oregon Health Authority as a result of the presence of cryptosporidium in the Bull Run watershed. After multiple tests in 2017 revealed the presence of the pathogen, the OHA revoked the city’s variance from federal rules requiring treatment of cryptosporidium.

A compliance agreement between Portland and the OHA requires pilot plant results and preliminary planning to be completed by Nov. 30, 2020, submission of final construction plans and schedule by Oct. 31, 2022, and water delivery meeting OHA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements by Sep. 30, 2027.

The RFP sought proposers with experience delivering large water or wastewater projects using the CM/GC method. The city of Portland’s Procurement Services division is currently in the process of evaluating proposals, and will likely conduct interviews during the selection process before issuing an intent to award, which is expected to occur next month.

Portland City Council last month agreed to enter a loan agreement with the EPA to provide up to $745 million of funding for the Bull Run Filtration Projects. The city’s Debt Management Division and the Water Bureau will seek to finalize terms and execute loan agreements this summer. The filtration facility has entered a two-year design phase, while planning for the pipelines is under way and will move to a design phase next year.

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The city of Portland is looking to take another step toward kick-starting a massive water filtration facility project by issuing bonds to finance a major portion of the work.

The City Council on Wednesday heard a first reading of an ordinance that would authorize the city to enter a loan agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide up to $745 million for the Bull Run Treatment Projects, which include a state-mandated filtration facility and pipeline currently estimated to cost around $820 million.

Under the proposed legislation, water revenue bonds would be issued as a direct loan with the EPA under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), a program aimed at stimulating infrastructure spending, improving ratepayer affordability and creating jobs by offering extremely low project financing costs.

Speaking to the City Council during an electronic meeting on Wednesday, city debt manager Matt Gierach said that if the terms for a loan agreement were finalized that day, the city could borrow at a rate of about 1.15 percent for 35 years – a rate that, with inflation, would essentially mean the city was borrowing that portion of the project’s financing for free.

During that time frame, Gierach said, the city would benefit from the economic stimulus of constructing the project while deferring payments into the future. The WIFIA program allows for loans to be drawn out over time, and repayment to be deferred until five years after substantial completion – 2032, in the case of the Bull Run filtration facility, which by mandate must be in operation by 2027.

The project is being undertaken to treat the Bull Run watershed for cryptosporidium, a pathogen that was detected in multiple tests in 2017. As a result of the tests, the Oregon Health Authority revoked Portland’s variance from federal rules requiring treatment for cryptosporidium, and the city agreed to construct a treatment facility to be in operation by 2027.

The City Council in November 2019 voted to proceed with a recommended option for the filtration facility that will treat 145 million gallons of water per day using ozone and conventional filtration. The council also voted that month to authorize a $51 million contract with Stantec Consulting Services Inc. for design of the water treatment facility, which will be located on a 95-acre parcel in unincorporated eastern Multnomah County. A separate contract for design of the pipelines servicing the facility is expected to be issued this spring.

During Wednesday’s council meeting, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty both said they’ve heard concerns from residents, businesspeople and others over the project’s cost and its impact on water rates. The Bull Run watershed provides drinking water for over 650,000 Portlanders and 300,000 additional residents of other Portland-area municipalities that purchase water from the city.

Hardesty said that while she supports the WIFIA loan, she is still not sold on the project as a whole.

“My biggest concern is smaller cities dropping out of our water program and deciding that they’re going to go their own way,” she said. “If that continues to be a major issue, we may need to think about whether or not this project makes sense. I just want to say publicly that my vote today for this in no way should imply that I’m on board 100 percent with us moving full-tilt ahead with this scenario.”

Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who oversees the Portland Water Bureau, stated that the 2027 deadline for project completion means that it cannot be postponed. Further, she added, the timing is ideal for it to proceed because of the availability of a very low-cost loan and the opportunity to create jobs amid widespread unemployment.

“This project is expected to create 7,500 direct jobs,” she said. “We can put Oregonians back to work now, and spread the cost to a generation of ratepayers who will benefit from the improvements. At this time in the COVID-19 pandemic when so many people are losing their jobs, losing their health and losing their financial security, this opportunity is more important than ever to pursue.”

Wheeler agreed, saying that there’s not going to be a better time in the next decade to finance projects through the issuance of bonds due to low interest rates being pushed by the federal government.

The ordinance will receive a second reading at a future council meeting. Upon approval, the city’s Debt Management Division and the Water Bureau will seek to finalize terms and execute loan agreements this summer. The filtration facility has entered a two-year design phase, while planning for the pipelines is under way and will move to a design phase next year.

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The city of Portland is moving forward with a plan to construct a state-mandated water filtration plant despite an unexpected increase in the estimated cost that left some city councilors reeling from sticker shock.

During a council work session with Portland Water Bureau officials in September, bureau director Michael Stuhr revealed that the project’s cost – originally estimated in 2017 at about $350 million to $500 million – could now potentially be more than $850 million.

The main reason, explained Stuhr, is that original estimates didn’t include construction of pipelines to service the plant. That portion was not included in early estimates because at that point the city had not decided where to locate the facility.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, taken aback by the price escalation, let his displeasure with the omission be known.

“It would have been very helpful for me to know that what we were talking about at that time was not the total project cost – that we were talking about merely one component of an overall system,” Wheeler told Stuhr. “We needed to know that we were talking about a piece of a system that could not operate, work or function in any reasonable manner in the absence of the rest of the system.

“I just want to put that on the table,” he continued. “I’m disappointed in that.”

The project is being undertaken to address regulatory requirements and potential impacts of natural disasters on the Bull Run watershed. After multiple tests in 2017 revealed the continued presence of the pathogen cryptosporidium in the watershed, the Oregon Health Authority revoked Portland’s variance from federal rules requiring treatment of cryptosporidium. The city then entered a compliance agreement with OHA requiring construction of a treatment facility that is operable by September 2027.

During the September work session, Stuhr and bureau officials presented city councilors with three options for the project, with cost estimates ranging from an estimated $670 million to meet minimum requirements to $850 million for a more robust version.

After Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty balked at the price, Water Bureau officials solicited feedback from the Portland Utility Board and Citizens Utility Board before returning in front of City Council Nov. 13 to recommend an $820 million option.

The recommended option would include most of the features of the full implementation option – including ozone and conventional filtration, two pipelines into and out of the facility for redundancy, and clear well storage – but would have a slightly lower treatment capacity of 145 million gallons per day, resulting in a $30 million cost savings.

City councilors on Nov. 27 approved adopting the recommended option to guide design and implementation. They also voted to authorize a $51 million maximum contract with Stantec Consulting Services Inc. for design of the water treatment facility, which will be located on a 95-acre parcel in unincorporated eastern Multnomah County. Both items passed with 3-0 votes; Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly were absent.

A separate contract for design of the pipelines servicing the plant, estimated to cost $20 million more, is expected to be issued in spring 2020. Design work is set to begin next year and run through the end of 2022.

The bureau ought to have a more concrete number on the project’s cost by the middle of 2021, when the design is anticipated to be about 30 percent complete. Construction is expected to begin in 2022 and run through the end of 2026.

The filtration facility will come without the bells and whistles that have led to cost overruns on other city projects, according to Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who oversees the water bureau.

“I have directed the water bureau staff to work toward a no-frills facility,” she said at last week’s council meeting. “No interpretive center, no fancy finishes except landscaping and exterior improvements designed to fit into the surrounding area.”

Wheeler, recognizing the importance of the project, called it the best long-term option for maintaining a safe drinking water supply. At the same time, he cautioned that the council had yet to solidify a cost estimate, and the current $820 million price tag is a low-confidence approximation that is likely to increase.

“The cost of construction, the cost of labor are going up, and so it is my expectation that the cost of the project will go up,” he stated before voting to move forward.

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One of the largest construction projects in Oregon right now is taking place mostly underground.

The $1.3 billion Willamette Water Supply Program is an amalgam of dozens of infrastructure projects that together over the next six years will provide a long-term water supply for the west side of the Portland-metro area. The Tualatin Valley Water District is the managing partner for all of the work, which began in 2015 with construction of a 2.7-mile-long pipeline along the new Southwest 124th Avenue in unincorporated Washington County.

That project was the first of many involving a host of municipal, county and regional partners that together will total more than 30 miles of finished pipeline by 2026. Supportive infrastructure will include a new water treatment plant in Sherwood’s Tonquin Employment Area, a raw water intake facility on the river in Wilsonville and a new reservoir on Cooper Mountain with twin 15 million gallon tanks. Plus, these efforts will be accompanied by a number of large road projects.

It’s a massive undertaking, and one that the water district hopes will secure enough fresh water to accommodate anticipated an increase in population in Washington County by as many as 200,000 people by 2040.

“An engineering firm and a contractor are hired to do each individual project,” said Libby Bakke of Barney & Worth, a Portland-based communications firm helping coordinate public outreach. “For such a large, complex project, it’s been on time and on budget. It’s one of Oregon’s largest infrastructure projects and it’s been very successful so far at getting pipe in the ground.”

The Willamette Water Supply Program is the public banner under which the Tualatin Valley Water District, consulting firm Stantec, Washington County, the cities of Hillsboro, Beaverton, Sherwood, Wilsonville and others are operating. Throughout the early planning stages, a premium was placed on being able to carry out road and pipe projects simultaneously to save both time and money. The first such project was Southwest 124th Avenue, but many others will be done in the same fashion. All are being constructed to the latest seismic standards.

“On six projects we’re partnering with Washington County,” said Andre Tolme, a construction manager with the Willamette Water Supply Program. “We’re working with their land-use and transportation departments to determine where they plan to do road widening and improvements or build new roads. Then we’re constructing our large-diameter water pipelines at the same time as the road construction. It saves money for public agencies, the taxpayers and rate payers, and significantly decreases the impact to the public.”

Maintaining transparency is a key part of the entire endeavor and the reason for extensive public outreach. The Willamette Water Supply Program recently benefited from the award of a $640 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant. It came via the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program established by the Obama administration.

“It’s huge,” said Joelle Bennett, deputy director for the Willamette Water Supply Program. “Large projects across the country compete for this funding, and it impacts all rate-paying customers.”

Currently, several general contractors’ crews are carrying out sizable pipeline and road projects. The most noteworthy ones are a pair of large pipeline efforts near the edge of the urban growth boundary west of Cooper Mountain in Beaverton. There, a 7,000-foot-long pipe is being installed along Roy Rogers Road in partnership with Washington County, which is improving that road at the same time. An even larger project is being carried out along Scholls Ferry Road west to Tile Flat Road: General contractor Emery & Sons Construction Group is laying over 10,000 feet of 66-inch-diameter, cement-lined steel pipe next to a massive residential development being constructed up to the edge of the UGB by developer Polygon Northwest.

With all the Willamette Water Supply Program projects numbered by phase and geography, the so-called Scholls Area Pipeline Project is actually three separate major projects totaling 7.2 miles of pipeline. Phase one is the project along Roy Rogers Road, which will see some 7,000 feet of pipe installed during the course of 2020. Phase two is the 10,000-foot stretch being constructed along Scholls Ferry and Tile Flat roads north to the new reservoir site. Phase three will see the pipeline extended from the reservoir at Grabhorn Road north to Farmington Road, with construction there anticipated to start in 2022.

Emery & Sons crews are currently backfilling new sections of pipeline and preparing to excavate a new section along the east side of Tile Flat Road.

“The hardest thing with this project was coordinating with the developer (Polygon Northwest) to widen the road and develop their property,” Tolme said, pointing east across open fields toward newly installed erosion control measures.

Crews have completed 3,200 feet of the new segment and are now grouting and finishing the interior of the last stretch of completed line in preparation for hydrostatic pressure testing. Then excavation will resume.

“They’re doing the interior grouts for the welded joints,” Emery & Sons project manager Ryan Knox said. “Also, our inspector is in there checking out the work, so we have an opening up here and a manway where they are working their way through the pipe.”

Construction on this phase began in early 2019 and is expected to wrap up in November 2020.

By then, Willamette Water Supply Program construction will be entering its busiest stretch.

“2021 and ’22 will be the busiest construction years, where we’ll have 10 projects simultaneously going,” Tolme said. “We have three others right now that are just getting started.”

An overview of the Willamette Water Supply Program is available at

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Major infrastructure upgrades are in the works for the city of Portland’s two major wastewater treatment plants in a project that’s expected to last for six years.

Canada-based Stantec is serving as owner’s representative on behalf of the Bureau of Environmental Services for the work at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Tryon Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Both plants are more than 50 years old and in need of reliability, efficiency and capacity improvements, according to Stantec engineers and city officials.

“Both of these plants are aged infrastructure,” said Dick Talley, area manager for Stantec in Portland. “The Bureau (of Environmental Services) here five or six years ago did an assessment in terms of age and reliability, and in terms of their treatment efficiency and capacity. What came out of that was a series of capital improvements the facilities were needing.”

The Columbia Boulevard plant, near Heron Lakes Golf Club and Portland International Raceway, is the larger of the two plants and was completed in 1952. The Tryon Creek plant was built within the city limits of Lake Oswego and completed in 1965.

The two plants treat all of the city of Portland’s wastewater. Columbia Boulevard treats an average of 76 million gallons a day with a capacity of 450 million gallons per day, while Tryon Creek treats 6.5 million gallons per day on average, with capacity to treat 8.3 million gallons per day.

Talley compared the system to a root and branch map. Each building discharges to small pipes, which join larger pipes and eventually the wastewater treatment plants. The Columbia Boulevard facility discharges into the Columbia River, while Tryon Creek goes to the Willamette.

Stantec began working with the BES in August to oversee the projects. At Tryon Creek, a joint venture of Slayden and James W. Fowler Co. is serving as construction manager-general contractor. Black & Veatch and Carollo Engineers are the design engineering firms.

At Columbia Boulevard, Jacobs is on board as the design engineering firm. A CM-GC has yet to be selected.

Budgets have not been finalized, but hard construction costs are expected to reach approximately $80 million at Columbia Boulevard and $50 million at Tryon Creek, Talley said.

“They’re big projects in terms of capital dollars,” he said.

Construction isn’t expected to begin until mid-2020. Both project teams will face the complication of working while the plants run. Neither one can be taken offline.

At Columbia Boulevard, anticipated work includes improving secondary water treatment, rebuilding the odor control system and upgrading electrical systems.

“A lot of the electrical switchgear is 1950s, 1960s vintage,” Talley said.

Tryon Creek needs a more thorough rebuild, including replacement of the headworks and primary treatment equipment, improvement of the secondary treatment and odor control processes and replacement of electrical components.

“The end result is the plant will have little more capacity, a lot more efficiency and be more resilient,” Talley said.

Seismic work will also be done at both plants to ensure they can survive a sizable earthquake intact.

Stantec was selected to oversee the projects because “we felt their team and the firm’s experiences around the world in supporting the delivery of large capital programs using alternative delivery will provide the highest value to BES,” bureau program manager Muriel Gueissaz-Teufel stated in a news release.

Stantec is based in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Stantec, a global engineering, consulting and project management firm, is bringing all of its Portland-area employees into one space in downtown.

Approximately 115 metro-area employees from three offices will move into space on the 14th floor of the Moda Tower, the company stated on Monday. Stantec’s water, building engineering and technology, power, environmental services, and waterpower and dams divisions will occupy slightly more than 20,000 square feet. Ankrom Moisan Architects designed the tenant improvement; Lease Crutcher Lewis served as the general contractor, and Jones Lang LaSalle provided construction management.

The Moda Tower space includes “huddle spaces” for employees to host informal conferences as well as four nontraditional spaces to encourage collaboration. Four spacious conference rooms will have views of downtown Portland and beyond, and unique glass-encased booths will allow staffers and clients to engage in private calls.

Also, the new space has a 1,050-square-foot break room, a living wall filled with plants, a 15-foot-long “conversation island” and an employee wellness room.

“It’s exciting to have all our professionals in one location,” Sheina Hughes, Stantec vice president and Northwest region leader stated in a press release. “The new space will allow for better partnership among our staff members and improved opportunities for our clients to access our wide array of technical and professional staff, capabilities and complete service lines.”

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The Oregon State University football team is starting its first season in the Valley Football Center, following a $42 million renovation and addition that included an innovative lighting system.

The project covered 55,000 square feet of floor space and produced a new home team locker room, a Hall of Fame exhibit, meeting spaces, expanded sports medicine facilities and a new building entrance.

As part of the project, an adaptable lighting scheme. For example, the LED lighting clusters in the auditorium can be used at one level for team film review, but then be easily switched to a different level for a movie setting. Also, in the locker room, accent lighting is used for each locker’s helmet shelf. To meet new lighting standards, Stantec designed LED driver units to be installed separately from the lights, providing easier access and safety for maintenance.

for the entire project, which was designed by HNTB Architecture. The project claimed first place in the public/institutional category of the AIA Southwestern Oregon .

The Beavers football team took possession of the improved facilities following the 2017 season.

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The Architecture Foundation of Oregon has added three people to its board of directors: Mark Peckover, a principal with Stantec; Barbara Clement, an associate partner with FFA Architecture and Interiors; and Brian K. Annand, a shareholder with Geffen Mesher.

“Mark has been serving on the finance and resource committee, and everyone recognized he is a great asset,” AFO Executive Director Jane Jarrett said. “With Brian, it is very important for us to have someone on the board who has experience in financial practices.”

Clement is returning to AFO’s board after previously serving in 2004.

AFO’s goal is for its board to feature a diverse group. A governance committee chooses its board of directors.

“We try to have not more than one-third of the board (be) architects,” Jarrett said. “We have engineers and marketing persons on the board and others. We want a variety of talents and perspectives.”

The goal of the foundation is to support Oregon’s quality of life and create awareness of designed environments.

AFO was started in 1981 by five firms: BOORA (now Bora) Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, SRG Partnership, Yost Grube Hall Architecture and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects.

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