Bureau: Fire station construction will resume

The hulking shell of a construction project will be revived at some as-yet-unknown date, but a tangle of legal problems has been resolved to allow the Bureau of Reclamation's fire station project to move forward.

The agency announced an agreement with the insurance company April 28.

The bureau said in a press release that Berkley Insurance

Company has selected J.S. Held LLC to coordinate the project with National Native American Construction, Inc.

"The mobilization date is unknown but is expected in the coming weeks," the bureau said.

The project should take from 12 to 18 months to complete, the bureau said.

Reclamation terminated the fire station contract with Innovative Construction and Design, a small business located in Post Falls, Idaho, in February 2021. This is the second termination Reclamation has executed for the contract. The U.S. government includes terms in its contracts that protect against financial losses in cases where the awarded contractor does not meet its contractual obligations. This protection is provided via performance bonds issued by a second party surety. Reclamation opened negotiations with ICD's surety to negotiate a mutually agreeable solution to bring the contract to completion.

The original contract was awarded in 2016 for over $13.6 million, to be finished by March 2018.

The contract was terminated in March 2019. The initial termination was rescinded by agreement between Reclamation and the surety, in favor of allowing an approved third-party contractor to take over the project. Ultimately, the third-party contractor was unsuccessful, which resulted in the second termination in February 2021.

The current contract price is $14,242,563.32, the bureau said.

The 22,000-square-foot fire station will provide space for vehicle and equipment storage along with separate crew areas for sleeping and dining, meeting/training rooms, offices, and a public reception area.

Once completed, the agency said, the new facility will ensure reliable protection for all Reclamation facilities and lands and assist local communities and other agencies through mutual aid agreements.

The site of the new fire station is located at the west gate to the Grand Coulee Power Office industrial area near the intersection of Highway 155 and B Street.