The consortium--believed to be the only US competitor for the assignment--revealed its plans late last week to meet an early requirement of a complex bid process. The group is preparing to submit a subcontractor bid in May. The California Department of Transportation expects to award the contract in July.

The consortium is comprised of Oregon Iron Works Inc. (Clackamas, OR), Thompson Metal Fab Inc. (Vancouver, WA), Universal Structural Inc. (Vancouver, WA), and Fought & Co. Inc. (Tigard, OR). If the bid is successful, the companies estimate their combined workforces would expand by 300 union jobs, not including an additional 270 jobs that would be created during the two-year construction of a 406,750-sf plant at the Port. The new plant would cost $18 million and be built on 25 acres leased from the Port. Another $12 million would be invested in equipment for the plant, and $3 million would be spent on a barge loading facility.

The replacement of the 2.2-mile east span on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a $2.9-billion project. The project is part of the seismic upgrade of the overall Bay Bridge to withstand a large scale earthquake. Construction of the 525-ft-high, single-pylon, self-anchored suspension bridge started in 2001 and is expected to be completed in 2009. The local consortium is bidding in part because a "buy America" requirement for federal funding projects allows domestic bids to be up to 25% more expensive than bids from foreign competitors.