Columbia County awards $2.73 million contract for Kellogg Hollow Road Phase 2
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Summary
After resolving a procedural bid protest, the county recommended and voted to award the Kellogg Hollow Road Phase 2 contract to Don Jackson Excavation LLC; the low bid was $2,726,879.01 and the project is funded by federal and state transportation programs with no county match reported in the transcript.
Columbia County commissioners voted to award the Kellogg Hollow Road Phase 2 contract to Don Jackson Excavation LLC after staff reviewed a procedural bid protest and confirmed the bidder met requirements.
An agency official (Speaker 7) recommended the award and said the county received eight bids. “Low bid was $2,726,879.01,” the official said, adding the second-lowest bid was $2,749,544.08, the high bid $4,016,678, and the engineer’s estimate $3,352,931.50. The official told the board the project is funded by a mix of federal and state transportation funds and other state resources and that the county would not need to provide local matching funds for this contract.
The protest centered on a procedural issue with a DOT subcontractor/license form: protesters argued the apparent low bidder did not list an electrical subcontractor on the form. The agency official said staff verified with Labor and Industries and the Department of Transportation that, although the work will require a licensed electrician, failing to list a lower-tier subcontractor on that DOT form is a procedural error and does not automatically disqualify the bidder. “It’s basically a procedural error,” the official said, summarizing staff’s review.
Committee member (Speaker 4) moved to forward the bid award to contracts and authorize the chair to sign. The chair called for the vote and the motion carried.
The agency official said the contractor will sign the contracts and return them for final board approval; the board’s vote at the meeting approved the award but the executed contract will be finalized in subsequent administrative steps. Staff indicated they would try to accommodate harvest traffic during construction and hoped the contractor could begin early April, depending on weather and slope stability.
What’s next: the county will complete contract signatures and return agreements to the board for final approval before work begins. No formal schedule for construction milestones was provided in the transcript.
