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Construction subcontractors queue up at Rock Creek

Story by Gina Whitehill-Baziuk

“������������ is investing $38 million to add more than 110,000 square feet of space to our Rock Creek Campus,” said Linda Degman, Associate Director of the ������������ Bond Program “With construction starting next month, one of ������������’s goals is to reinvest these bond dollars into the community by��spreading the work and opportunity out to minority and women-owned businesses and local vendors in Washington County.”

David Rule, Campus President for Rock Creek, welcomed the more than forty people representing 39 companies who attended the event to learn about bidding opportunities for local contractors, minority, woman and emerging small businesses () and to kick-off campus construction. ��Construction will begin June 2012 with the demolition of the two rotundas on the east side of Building 7.

“In 2011, we had more than 25,800 students enrolled at Rock Creek,” said David Rule. “With that in mind, my focus will be to work closely with our construction management team to ensure that the college is operating smoothly during construction.”

, and have partnered together on the Rock Creek Campus project, with FORTIS acting as the overall construction manager. One of the goals of that partnership is for FORTIS to provide mentoring to Northwest Infrastructure and Faison Construction, both of which are minority-owned companies. All three contractors will manage specific portions of the campus improvements.

“The Bond Program has strongly encouraged companies interested in serving as construction managers/general contractors (CM/GC) for ������������ bond projects to form partnerships with MWESB firms,” said Degman. “Our goal in contracting bond projects in this way is to promote mentoring opportunities between larger and smaller firms. We believe that this will ultimately build capacity within the MWESB firms we hire so that they are able to bid jobs at a higher amount, work more efficiently and grow their companies.”

According to Rob Fallow, senior project manager with FORTIS, contracts for Building 7 improvements will be out for bid in mid-May. Contracts for Building 5, the largest portion of campus construction, will be issued after Building 7. In addition to buildings 7 and 5, there will be interior renovations for buildings 9, 2 and 3, as well as significant site work associated with each of the buildings and surrounding farm lands. ��Stormwater management for parking lots is still under discussion with and .

Fallow noted that participants at the construction kick-off event will be invited to bid via email. Fortis will advertise through the Daily Journal of Commerce, iSqFt and at FORTIS’ office (1705 SW Taylor Street, Suite 200, Portland), where contractors can review building site plans and renderings.�� Contractors and vendors can also view a preliminary schedule of work on the ������������ Bond website and ������������’s quarterly report to the Board regarding MWESB percentages on its projects district wide.

The ������������ Bond Program��is hosting the��next Construction Kickoff��for its��Southeast Campus���ɾ��ٳ���later this summer.����For more information, contact��John Persen at 971-722-8426 or��by email��or visit the��Contracting Opportunities��page on the ������������ Bond website.