US Steel Consortium Picks Port as Would-Be Base

VANCOUVER, WA-Four area companies working together to win five years of steel work for the $2.9-billion replacement of the East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge have chosen the Port of Vancouver as their would-be assembly plant.

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.