UPDATE: The California Department of Water Resources has named Kiewit Corp. as the winning bidder for the Oroville Dam repair project and awarded the company a $275.4 million contract, according to The Sacramento Bee. Work on the dam is expected to start in late May and last through 2018.
Dive Brief:
- Three contractors submitted bids to fix two spillways at the Oroville Dam near Sacramento, CA, and the lowest bid exceeded the state estimate of $220 million by more than $55 million, according to The Mercury News.
- Kiewit Corp. was the low bidder at $275.4 million, followed by Montana-based Barnard Construction at $277 million. The highest of the three bids, $344.1 million, was submitted by Oroville Dam Constructors, a joint venture between Sacramento-based Teichert Construction and Granite Construction, according to The Sacramento Bee.
- February's spillway failure forced the temporary evacuation of 188,000 residents downstream.
Dive Insight:
The Trump Administration has authorized $274 million to assist with dam repairs, but, according to state officials, those funds will be exhausted by May, as the money will go toward preliminary repairs and other emergency costs. Department of Water Resources officials said the state will request additional emergency funds from the federal government.
Dam repair could be one of the categories of projects that President Donald Trump has in mind for his $1 trillion infrastructure repair and upgrade plan. Infrastructure was one of the key promises of the president's campaign, but it was temporarily pushed to the back burner while the administration and Republicans attempted to tackle healthcare reform and other issues.
In what some are calling an effort to regain momentum for his agenda, infrastructure is back in the forefront, and Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said she expects the administration to introduce an infrastructure proposal in May. According to Trump, he will cut red tape for the selected projects and will not back any infrastructure initiative that can't get up and running within 90 days of receiving the go ahead.
