Written By: Paul Gribbon, Willamette River CSO Tunnel Program Manager
The Bureau of Environmental Services’ West Side “Big Pipe [1]” project, a $350 million project to capture, store, and convey combined sewer overflows along the west side of the Willamette River, was completed and operational ahead of the mandated completion date of December 1, 2006.The project included a 3½-mile long, 14-foot diameter tunnel, 120 feet underground, from SW Clay Street and Naito Parkway crossing under the river at NW Nicolai Street to Swan Island. Also included was a 220-million gallon per day pump station, 160 feet below ground, on Swan Island as well as five deep shafts and 15,000 feet of additional pipelines.
When the design of the project was approximately 60% complete, a qualifications-based procurement process was begun to select the best contractor as measured against the selection criteria, including cost, experience, project approach, and plan for procuring minority, women, and emerging small businesses. The construction contract with the selected contractor, the Italian/American joint venture of Impregilo/S.A. Healy JV (IHJV), was executed in two parts, a pre-construction planning phase agreement and a construction services contract. Notice-to-Proceed for the pre-construction planning phase was issued in January 2002 and ended in August 2002. Notice-to-Proceed for the construction contract was issued on September 12, 2002 with a 47 month contract period. The project was substantially complete on September 15, 2006, well ahead of the December 1, 2006 state-mandated deadline. The original construction contract was $293,060,874 in 2002 dollars with a contingency of $14.7 million to cover risks inherent in deep underground work. During the course of the four-year contract, inflation to the cost of construction has been approximately $15 million. The contract is anticipated to be completed at approximately $305 million, which, after correcting for inflation, is under the original 2002 contract amount. In addition, approximately $26 million went to local contractors, including almost $20 million to minority, women, and emerging small businesses.
By any measure, the West Side "Big Pipe" project was a complete success. The project came in on time and on budget. The system is fully functional and the startup went smoothly. The credit for this is shared between IHJV, Environmental Services project staff, and the designer, Parsons Brinckerhoff, who were able to implement the intent of the contract by working through a number of issues during the work. This is particularly impressive when the difficult ground conditions, tunneling under downtown Portland, and the challenge of construction of the massive below-ground Swan Island Pump Station are considered. The contract style allowed Environmental Services and IHJV to adapt to issues as they arose and get beyond claims that many times bog an underground construction project down. Essentially, the reason the project succeeded was a positive attitude by all parties.
Related Documents
- Construction Management Review Audit Report - January 7, 2005 [2].
- Clean River Works/West Side Big Pipe [3]
- Project photos [4]
- More project photos [5]
- Archived project photos [6]
- Project glossary [7]
- Historical data [8]
- The Community Benefit Opportunity Program [9]
Community partners
- Businesses for Clean Rivers
- Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs [10]
- National Utility Contractors Association [11]
- Community Benefit Opportunity Project [12]
Media Mentions
- Print news articles [13]
Milestones