PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles’ Marine Terminal Stormwater Treatment facility, originally budgeted for $2.05 million, will cost $2.36 million to build and $2.73 million overall.

Port commissioners approved a construction bid Tuesday for the project north of Marine Drive on the industrial waterfront.

Commissioners Connie Beauvais, Colleen McAleer and Steve Burke unanimously approved the $2.36 million construction bid for the taxing district’s largest capital project for 2018 to low bidder Interwest Construction Inc. of Burlington.

Other project costs including $150,000 for design, $120,000 for contingency and $45,000 estimated for construction administration pushed the project cost to $2.73 million, boosting the price tag to $680,000 over budget, or 30 percent more than was allocated in the 2018 capital budget.

The $680,000 will be drawn from the port’s capital reserves, reducing the $7.5 million balance by 9 percent.

Beauvais, McAleer and Burke were unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon.

The treatment project must be built by Sept. 30 under an administrative order from the state Department of Ecology that the port deal with untreated stormwater from the port’s industrialized shoreline are that flows freely into Port Angeles Harbor.

Construction will begin by mid- to late June, with little impact on the public expected.

A low wall and three large concrete boxes up to 5 feet tall will be installed near the port’s Terminal 3 dock off the Boat Haven parking lot.

When it went out to bid in April, the project was estimated to cost $2.05 million for construction and $200,000 for design, exceeding the budget — not including $171,000 in sales taxes — by $150,000.

Engineering Director Chris Hartman told Peninsula Daily News on April 13 that the increased cost was due to design work that made the project more “site specific,” to avoid a chemical treatment process and to expand the area planned for paving.

The cost is now $2.73 million because of the contingency amount that was added and bids came in higher than anticipated, Hartman said.

“We’ve seen construction costs escalate,” he said after the meeting Tuesday.

“That’s a portion of it, and the other part of is we budgeted the project prior to final design.

“Costs can escalate as designs get tweaked and finalized.”

Kennedy/Jenks Consultants Inc., which has an office in Seattle, was the engineering firm that did the design and construction estimate for the Marine Terminal Stormwater Treatment Project.

The project will consist of biofiltration garden and three concrete box-like cells up to 5 feet tall near the Terminal 3 dock.

It will process up to 5.5 million gallons of polluted runoff before it pours through a new outfall into the harbor.

A pump installed in the current outfall will move stormwater to the new treatment facility and will be used solely for high-rain events.

The port agreed with Ecology to install the new system after exceeding permitted levels for 12 months.

Pollutants including copper and zinc, which are toxic to salmonids, at higher levels than allowed in the permit.

Reid Middleton of Everett was the engineering firm that did the design and construction estimate for an estimated $1.63 million vessel wash-down facility that is the port’s second largest capital project for 2018.

The original construction cost estimate was $2.46 million, higher than the budgeted amount, for the facility, which will serve Westport Shipyard on Marine Drive, Platypus Marine on North Cedar and new tenants in the Marine Trades Industrial Park.

Cost reductions included transporting wash-water effluent to a nearby port treatment site instead of building a treatment facility and the option of building a 93-foot concrete wash pad that would be slightly more than half the size of a wash pad that could have more easily accommodated Westport’s 164-foot yachts.

Port officials are hoping the wash-down facility will spark tenant interest in the industrial park.

It is expected to be completed by Oct. 31. Port officials have said the wash-down is vital to development of the 18-acre site, which went through $7 million of environmental cleanup following decades as the location of a plywood mill.

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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.