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The Port of Chehalis commissioners unanimously approved a $1.2 million contract extension to the Southwest Washington Grain Project to extend work on the project, bringing the updated total contract price to $5.925 million.
The order was approved during the port’s Aug. 14 business meeting.
According to Lindsey Senter, the port’s chief executive officer, the change order is expected and within the port’s budget. The change order is the second of likely three, as Senter said this process is less laborious and avoids having to go back out to bid for certain items or redoing the contract.
This change order entails the addition of monolithic footing at silos, two hopper bottom main silos, bulk weighing equipment and controls, time for design changes and surveying, rebar cost corresponding to structural design requirements, a storm drain line at the office trailer, and dewatering in a stainless steel trench, among other items.
The project will create a new grain storage and transloading facility in Chehalis. This facility will allow local farmers to aggregately store and move products via rail and expand opportunities for regional producers and mid-tier grain commerce in the region.
Senter said the commissioners have heard about the change order for some time and that the port’s approval is a formality for the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA), which provided $3.14 million in funding for the project that broke ground in April. Over the last five years, the port has also obtained $800,000 in Lewis County grant funding to build a rail spur on the port’s property, $1.75 million through the Washington state capital budget, and $4.12 million in Community Project Funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“We just haven’t formalized the change on this. The $1.2 million, this is the number where when we initially received the EDA funding, it was limited funding and then we also got that HUD funding to attach to it,” Senter said of the change order. “We have enough foresight to put in our contract some options to extend out the work should we come across more money, which we did, and this allows us to maximize the time and ultimately saves us money to get everything done under this same project packet.”
Senter noted that the price of rebar was “a little spendier than we’d hoped,” which was one contributing factor to the change order. After Commissioner Paul Ericson asked Senter if the port was confident that the $5.9 contract price would be the final amount, Senter responded that there will be one more contract extension revolving around paving the entire site.
“It’ll look like another chunk of money, but again, this is all work that we intended to have done anyway,” she said. “The reason you’re seeing a lot of these big change orders is because, initially, when we struck this contract up with the EDA, we couldn’t guarantee we’d have alternative funding to do those options. Their recommendation was just to do change orders as we go throughout as long as we can prove to the EDA that they’re done correctly and we get the funding for it.”
Collaborative partners on the Southwest Washington Grain Project include the Southwest Washington Growers Cooperative and Northwest Agricultural Business Center, among others. Once fully constructed, the facility will provide the conveyance and physical infrastructure necessary to transload small grains from regional producers’ trucks into rail cars and from rail cars into trucks and aggregate storage. The facility will be able to store approximately 12,600 bushels of grain and transload at a rate of 7,500 bushels per hour, with room to expand capacity in the future based on funding.
To learn more about the project, visit https://portofchehalis.com/swwagp-faqs/.
