Dog River Pipeline materials purchased

According to Public Works Director Dave Anderson, The Dalles Public Works Department has just hit the 90% level of design for the project. Public Works has also submitted applications to several different state and federal agencies to ensure the project can proceed.

Anderson said the department is currently finishing the draft of a contract for an agency to remove timber from the project site. They will begin advertising the contract soon, he said. Additionally, the department is scheduled to advertise the contract for construction of the pipeline in March.

According to Anderson, the city hopes to award the construction contract sometime in late April or early May. If all goes according to plan, the pipeline’s construction will begin sometime in 2022 and continue through 2023.

Because the timeline is so short, he said, the city had to change its approach to the contracting process.

“To be able to complete the project that quickly, it was important to have the construction contractor be able to begin work as soon as possible after we award the contract this spring and to facilitate that, the city advertised a separate contract to purchase the pipe in advance of awarding the construction,” he said.

By ordering the pipe for the 2022 construction season early, Anderson said the contractor would be able to avoid a possible delay of weeks or months after the award of the contract, allowing them to begin work much sooner.

On Jan. 28, the city conducted an opening in which they received three bids. The lowest was by Core & Main, Inc., who were willing to provide the pipe for $951,882.45. According to Anderson, the water reserve fund for the project has $10.5 million, and, based on the current design plans for the project, the engineer’s estimate for the pipe purchase was just under $1.2 million.

“The purchase low bid price is less than the engineer’s estimate and within the funds that are available for the project,” he said.

Anderson then requested that the council move to authorize the city manager to approve the contract, which they did unanimously.

Once the pipe is purchased, it will be stored on a parcel of property belonging to the Port of The Dalles until its needed. Anderson said the Port had been “gracious” in allowing the city to do so.

The next regular city council meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28, on Zoom.