Bonneville Power Administration

Headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is a nonprofit federal power agency that transmits and sells wholesale hydropower to the western United States. BPA’s territory includes Idaho, Oregon, Washington, western Montana and small parts of eastern Montana, California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. As part of the Department of Energy, BPA’s services account for nearly 28% of all electricity consumed in the west.

Due to rapid population growth and changing customer service needs, BPA sought to expand and improve its 250-acre Ross Substation and Maintenance Complex. BPA approached JLD to apply value engineering, align expansion costs with market conditions and identify other opportunities to maximize the existing budget. The estimated $40 million project included constructing the 36,000 square-foot Fleet Services Building, the 7,500 square-foot Bronto Building, site improvements and demolishing seven buildings to make room for new facilities. Two of the demolished buildings were PCB contaminated and were hauled to the Arlington Hazardous Waste facility in Eastern Oregon. The other buildings were in continuous use up until the project commenced.

Through a thorough and systematic process, JLD identified various cost-saving measures to stay within budget. The firm conducted an audit of the project’s schedule and change orders, to ensure that the estimates furnished by the contractor accurately reflected fair market prices for materials, labor, and more. JLD also worked closely with the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) to help both parties better understand the project’s scope, ensuring relative budget expenses.

JLD provided various other services, including construction management and risk identification and mitigation. As part of their consultation on the project, JLD also promoted the use of integrated design and integrated construction techniques. In addition, JLD identified cost-saving opportunities within the project’s scope of extensive civil improvements throughout the site, including parking, a multi-modal path, road changes and ADA accessibility. JLD’s cost estimate included all these improvement expenses.

JLD achieved project cost-savings of nearly $8 million through recommendations such as shortened project schedules that reduced labor costs. BPA’s initial $40 million estimate dropped to a final price of $32.2 million, bolstering the organization’s confidence and satisfaction.

JLD’s value engineering delivered time and cost-savings, ultimately exceeding client expectations. As a testament to the firm’s accuracy, JLD’s estimate came within 0.82% of the final project cost. The Fleet Services Building received LEED Gold certification upon its completion in 2020.