Port approves rail tunnel contractors

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Story Published: Jun 23, 2009 at 7:57 PM PST

By Erica Rush

COOS BAY, Ore. -Tackling two entities, the International Port of Coos Bay takes action on the rail line tunnels, while also approving their budget to assist in any potential problems in the water.

The Board of Commissioners agreed Tuesday evening, that LRL Construction Co. of Tillamook will be awarded the contract for the Coos Bay Rail Line 2009 Tunnel Maintenance/Rehabilitation project, pending a final review by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

LRL Construction had the lowest bid out of all the contractors reviewed by the Port, coming in at around $1.7 million, a number Port Executive Director Jeffrey Bishop was very excited to see.

"The bid came in under budget, much to our relief, considerably under budget," says Bishop. "So we will have ample funds to repair the three tunnels that closed the line and possibly have money left over to do an additional tunnel."

Other agenda items included approving the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget.. of $38 million. $700,000 of that will go towards funding for our local waterway pilots, who have been hit hard financially, seeing a nearly 40% decrease in the number of ship calls this past year.

According to Bishop, "We've had some ongoing discussions with the local pilots and it's a requirement of the law that if we can anticipate an expense we have to budget for it. So in order to facilitate those discussions we're having, we went ahead and included that department in our new budget."

The next Port meeting will be held July 16 and construction on the tunnels should be getting underway right around then.

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