Chelan advances plans, approves contract for new recycling center

CHELAN — The City of Chelan has taken its first concrete step toward building a new Chelan Recycling Center, approving a pre-construction services agreement with Bayley Construction to help guide the project toward construction.

The City Council voted Jan. 27 to authorize a $24,273 agreement with Bayley Construction to serve as the project’s general contractor/construction manager, or GCCM, during the pre-construction phase of the facility.

Public Works Director Jake Youngren told council the city has shifted from a traditional project delivery method to GCCM in order to reduce uncertainty around cost and scope before committing to construction.

“As I’ve alluded to in previous meetings, I believe we’ve shifted our approach on this project from a traditional design-bid-build sequence to what we call a general contractor construction manager delivery method,” Youngren said.

Under the pre-construction agreement, Bayley will prepare multiple cost estimates, conduct constructability reviews, and coordinate with the city’s insurance provider to ensure agreement on scope and pricing before the project moves into construction.

“This helps us bridge the gap between our architect’s estimates that we currently have a contract with and the insurance company’s estimates,” Youngren said.

“So that’s really the crux of why we’re going down this route — to get concurrence on project scope and pricing before we bid it,” he said. “So we can have some level of surety that we’re moving forward in the right direction.”

Youngren said Bayley will also help the city identify long-lead equipment items that may need to be ordered early, including specialized recycling equipment and electrical components.

“This project, I don’t expect that to be an issue,” he said, “but we have a baler and some electrical equipment that we may want to jump on early and get ordered and coming.”

If the pre-construction phase is successful, the city plans to amend the agreement to include the full construction of the recycling facility at a later date.

Funding for the pre-construction phase is already available in the city’s budget.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media