Work continues on Centralia Station, a project by the Port of Centralia located east of the Mellen Street exit off of Interstate 5.
Centralia Station is a proposed shopping center complex with WinCo Foods as the anchor tenant. WinCo is a warehouse-style supermarket chain that offers bulk food items and is open 24 hours a day.
The project is being carried out in three phases. The first involves readying the land and roads surrounding the project site, including the Yew Street extension, and is being carried out by the Toledo-based contractor Midway Underground.
Phase two involves building a new off-ramp and turning lane off the I-5 Mellen Street exit and is being carried out by the Kent-based contractor Scarsella Bros.
WinCo will carry out the project's final phase, which involves building the supermarket and adjacent structures, and will begin once the first two phases are complete. The port expects the first two phases to be completed this fall.
Earlier this week, during the port’s Sept. 6 meeting, two pay estimates to the contractors working on phases one and two of the Centralia Station project were approved along with a change order adjusting phase one’s overall cost.
First was the ninth pay estimate to Midway Underground for a total of $529,027.14, followed by a second pay estimate to Scarsella Bros for a total of $282,172.24.
The change order was the fifth submitted and will increase phase one’s overall cost by $231,000.
“All of this is outside the scope of work that we’re currently doing, but we’ve got contractors on site and it makes sense to do at this time,” Port of Centralia Executive Director Kyle Heaton said.
It will remove stripping from the construction site, move and compact fill piles and should bring the project’s filling and compacting close to completion, according to Heaton.
He added the port’s engineer said the weather is optimal right now and if the port waits for the rainy season, the fill will be heavier and cost more to move.
The change order was originally discussed during the port’s Aug. 2 meeting for a proposed cost of $236,000.
Additionally, another pay estimate for phase one was approved during the Aug. 2 meeting. The eighth pay estimate to Midway Underground totaled $947,130.45.
Midway Underground’s original bid for phase one was $6,116,322.03. With the five approved change orders, the total is now $7,302,768.67. All nine pay estimates approved for Midway Underground total $5,369,837.28.
Scarsella Bros’s bid for phase two totaled $2,337,681.75, and the two pay estimates approved by the port total $1,342,363.46.
