PORT ANGELES —Port of Port Angeles commissioners have approved a $1.6 million low-bid dredging contract that exceeds the budgeted amount by more than 50 percent — but could be far less depending on transportation costs.
When completed, the deeper waters will make ship captains less hesitant about the possibility of hitting bottom at Terminal 3 in Port Angeles Harbor, a Port of Port Angeles official said Tuesday.
“Over the past 40-plus years, sediment has deposited in the berth, decreasing the berth depth to the point where vessel captains have concerns about touching bottom during low tide,” said port Director of Engineering Chris Hartman in a staff report.
“To compound this issue, over the last ten years there has been a trend for larger bulk cargo vessels with deep drafts.”
Port commissioners learned the project at Terminal 3 already has cost $300,000 for design, sediment-core testing and permitting not included in the agreement that they unanimously approved Tuesday with Stayton, Ore.-based Legacy Contracting.
The cost also could range between $1.3 million and $1.8 million depending upon the amount of polluted sediment that must be trucked to a landfill — likely the privately held Roosevelt Regional Landfill south of Yakima — as opposed to depositing it as fill for the port’s Marine Trades Industrial Park.
The sediment, which contains polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, dioxins and metals, includes tributyltin, aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins/furans that exceeded the Dredged Material Management Program, administered by state and federal agencies.
Those levels makes at least some of that sediment unsuitable for open water disposal, according to the port’s Seattle-based environmental consulting firm, Floyd-Snider.
The project had been budgeted for $1 million that was to be drawn from the capital budget.
Instead, costs will be covered by the operating budget because the port does not own the underlying land, Hartman said.
Hartman said project expenditures that exceed the $1 million budgeted amount will come out of port reserves.
“There are no funding partners or loans,” he said.
Hartman said Thursday the cost exceeded the budgeted amount due to factors including the estimated dredge quantity increasing from 13,000 cubic yards to 15,000 cubic yards.
The $1.6 million contract assumes 3,000 cubic yards, or 5,000 tons, will need to be trucked away.
In addition, an engineer’s estimate that turned out to be low was not completed until after the budget was developed, Hartman said.
“There was a lot of additional soil testing that was not anticipated, not finalized, until after final approval from [the Department of] Ecology,” he said.
The $300,000 for design and other costs came out of 2017-2019 operating funds.
If 5,000 tons are trucked there, it will cost $1.77 million.
If no material is trucked to the landfill, the project will cost $1.27 million.
Legacy’s bid was $500,000 under that of Vancouver, Wash.-based Keiwit Infrastructure West Company, the high bidder among three companies that vied for the project.
American Construction Company Inc. of Tacoma submitted a $1.6 million proposal, just $130,000 more than Legacy’s.
“Legacy’s rate to dredge and haul and dispose on the upland is much lower than Keiwit’s,” Hartman explained to commissioners Steven Burke, Connie Beauvais and Colleen McAleer.
The port’s primary cargo-loading site, built in the late 1960s, was last dredged to minus 45 feet more than four decades ago, in 1978.
Dredging to a depth of minus 45 feet average low tide is scheduled for July 20-Sept. 4, but is permitted for July 15, 2020-Feb. 15, 2021.
According to the contract with Legacy, off-site transportation and disposal of up to 5,000 tons of dredged material will account for $460,000 of the contract, the second highest cost next to $578,000 in dredging and stockpiling costs. Mobilization and demobilization is $395,000.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
