The Hermiston Urban Renewal Agency on Monday awarded a contract to reconstruct the S.E. Second Street-S. Highway 395 intersection.
Odyssey Contracting was awarded the contract after coming in with the lowest bid at $314,747.50.
The Hermiston City Council approved the design for the intersection in April of 2023. City staff also held a neighborhood meeting in March 2023 to gather feedback on the proposed design.
Hermiston City Planner Clint Spencer, who also serves as the city’s urban renewal director, said at the time the change will enhance the safety of an existing intersection that he described as “dangerous.”
The project was bid in March 2023 and only two bids were received. Spencer said both bids exceeded the project budget of $360,000.
“So, we scaled back the project a little bit,” Spencer said.
As a result, the urban renewal agency rejected all bids and chose to remove some project components and rebid in a more favorable bidding climate in the winter. Spencer said to save money, landscape elements and seat walls were removed, and one of the two columns was moved to a bid alternative to be constructed only if funds allow. The revised project was re-bid in January. Along with Odyssey Contracting’s bid three other bids were received – $396,280 from Nelson Construction Corp., $492,539.70 from Silver Creek Contracting and $713,329 from Cascade Silver Corp.
The engineer’s estimate for the revised project is $329,000 for the main project and an additional $70,000 for construction alternatives of irrigation and a second gateway column for a total estimate of $399,000. Odyssey Contracting’s bid came in around $84,000 under the estimate.
In addition to the $315,000 for construction costs, Spencer said an additional fee will be required for construction engineering and oversight from the city’s engineers with Anderson Perry. Construction oversight is estimated to be between $20,000 and $30,000 bringing the project total to $345,000.
