Saratoga fire station bid awarded

Construction expected to begin soon

“One builder is out and another one is in to build a new fire station on Saratoga Road.Earlier this month, the Fire Protection District 3 board of commissioners finished a second round of bidding on the project by choosing a Federal Way company to build the station. In its original bid process last fall, the district’s board of commissioners accepted a base, $238,400 bid from TBWP General Contractors. But changes a few months ago to the station’s design, plus the addition of a third vehicle bay, would have represented tens of thousands of dollars in change orders, said Don Smith, the district’s chief.When the second set of bids came before the commissioners on April 6, the tables turned for TBWP. It came in as the high bidder for the station project. A $349,099 bid from Glory Developers, Inc. of Federal Way trumped TBWP’s $369,000 bid, as well as a $364,883 figure from Langley’s J&L Builders.Chief Smith said the new bid falls within the district’s budget for the station. Saying that he hopes construction will start within a month, Smith said the redesigned station will require less earth moving and tree cutting than the previous design. To do this, the building was redesigned from a rectangular shape to a square shape.It’s much less intrusive to the environment, Smith said.The two-story station will have three vehicle bays for engines and tenders, as well as more than 1,000 square feet of crew, training, and storage space.”