Brightwater project will get second contractor

King County will bring in a second general contractor to help build the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant, a move that could push the cost $13.7 million higher.

County officials and managers of the original contractor, Hoffman Construction, said the change was necessary because Hoffman couldn't obtain a surety bond large enough to cover the full cost of construction.

The cost of the project, located in Snohomish County north of Woodinville, has grown from about $330 million to roughly $500 million over the past three years.

Wastewater officials informed the County Council capital-budget committee of the contracting problem last week.

The entire project, including a deep underground pipeline to Puget Sound, is expected to cost $1.75 billion, but newly appointed Wastewater Treatment Director Christie True said updated cost estimates will be released next month.

True said the precise cost of the treatment plant won't be known until the second contractor is hired and Hoffman receives bids from subcontractors.

To keep the treatment plant on track, True said, the job is being divided so that construction of solids-handling buildings will be put out to competitive bidding while Hoffman remains in charge of site preparation and construction of facilities to handle liquid wastes.

Portland-based Hoffman's problems are twofold, said True and Tom Peterson, Hoffman's vice president and general manager for Washington: A hot construction market has driven up costs at the same time underwriters have slashed the amount of surety bonds they will issue to a contractor for a single project.

King County hired Hoffman under an arrangement that was new to the wastewater utility. The company, acting as both general contractor and construction manager, would help refine the design and build the plant for a negotiated price.

True said the county will market the second contract aggressively, in the hope of avoiding what happened to Sound Transit when only one contractor submitted a bid — $43.5 million over budget — to build a light-rail station at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

County officials explored but discarded other alternatives, such as hiring the original second-highest-rated bidder or starting over with conventional bidding. True said those options could have delayed completion of the sewer plant by as much as a year, and it wasn't likely any contractor could single-handedly come up with the required surety bond.

"We do think we are proceeding with the alternative that is the best thing for the ratepayer in terms of minimizing costs and minimizing risks," True said.

Peterson said splitting the construction job may save Hoffman $10 million to $15 million in staffing costs — a cost True said could be passed on to the county and could "balance out" the $13.7 million cost of managing two contracts.

County Councilman Dow Constantine, chairman of the capital budget committee, said he was frustrated by the problem but said the two-contractor plan is "a solution that appears to be rational."

"I wasn't amused," Councilman Bob Ferguson said when asked his reaction to news of the bonding problem.

The County Council authorized wastewater officials in 2003 to hire a general contractor/construction manager to build the treatment plant.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com