WES highlights major projects: Tri City outfall on time and under budget; Upper Kellogg restoration wins engineering recognition

Water Environment Services staff highlighted recent capital work and community outreach at the advisory committee meeting, noting both engineering awards and operational outcomes.

Greg Derto, director of WES, said the Tri City Outfall project was brought online in December and finished on time and on budget. "It was a $58 million project. We were within 0.03% of that target," he told committee members.

The committee viewed a video about the Upper Kellogg Creek restoration produced by OTAAC, which described frequent historical flooding and a nature-based green infrastructure approach that restored riparian width and prioritized native plantings. WES named Leah Johansson from the engineering division as the project manager for Upper Kellogg and thanked project partners and the contractor for meeting a tight schedule that used grant funding allocations before the end of 2024.

WES staff emphasized that the Upper Kellogg work directly benefits more than 100 neighborhood properties and required proactive easement work on private land. The presentation credited a streamlined procurement process and close communication for enabling accelerated in-water work and meeting an aggressive grant schedule.

The meeting also noted the Three Creeks floodplain enhancement project and WES's community engagement through an eight-year partnership with Solve for the 'Down the River' cleanup series; presenters said the program has enlisted more than 1,700 volunteers this year and collected over 31,000 pounds of trash.

The presentations were framed as examples of long-term planning and regional partnership: staff said these projects reflect WES's long-range facility and capital plans, and they used the examples to illustrate why aligning budgeting and construction timing matters to service reliability and resilience.