Chelan awards $3.56 million sewer lift station contract

CHELAN — Chelan has awarded a $3.56 million construction contract to replace one of the city's primary sewer lift stations, advancing the second phase of a major downtown wastewater improvement project while city officials acknowledge the first phase has encountered higher-than-expected costs.

The Chelan City Council voted July 28 to award the contract to BOSS Construction Inc. of Bellingham, whose bid of $3,555,083.52 was the lowest of three submitted.

The project will replace Lift Station 1, located near Riverwalk Park behind Campbell's Resort, and is considered the second half of the city's ongoing State Route 150 sewer improvements.

Public Works Director Jake Youngren said the city's engineering consultant found no irregularities in the bidding process and determined the proposal closely matched the engineer's estimate, giving staff confidence the project was competitively bid.

"We feel like the market is delivering a project that aligns with what we estimated," Youngren told the council.

The city is financing the downtown sewer improvements through approximately $5.1 million in Department of Ecology funding with a 20-year repayment period.

Youngren said the first phase of the project along State Route 150 is now projected to finish roughly $300,000 above its original contract amount, largely because crews encountered underground utilities that were not shown on existing records, along with greater quantities of excavation materials than anticipated.

"Any time you're subsurfacing an old area of town, we do the best we can to get ahead of this stuff and try to mitigate unknowns, but you always find them," Youngren said.

Even with those overruns, Youngren said the city expects to remain within available project funding, though another sewer capital project may have to be postponed while officials evaluate budgets for 2027.

Construction on the new lift station is expected to begin in early September, with the most disruptive work occurring in Columbia Street and nearby alleyways before shifting to the lift station site itself.

Unlike the SR 150 project, Youngren said much of the work will be concentrated at a single location, reducing some of the uncertainty associated with long stretches of underground excavation. However, crews still expect to contend with contaminated soils and groundwater near the lake during construction.

Councilmember Cesar Rivera-Vargas cast the lone dissenting vote after asking whether BOSS Construction participates in apprenticeship or workforce development programs. Youngren said staff had verified the company's qualifications to perform the work but was not familiar with the company's internal apprenticeship structure. Later in the meeting, Rivera-Vargas said he would like to see contractors compete for public projects through "efficiency, planning, and quality," while supporting apprenticeship opportunities and complying with prevailing wage and labor standards. Youngren noted that city public works contracts are subject to prevailing wage requirements and other contractual labor standards, which vary depending on the project's funding source.

The council approved the contract on a 6-1 vote.

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