PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Portland Water Bureau and partnering agencies celebrated a milestone of its Washington Park Reservoirs Improvement project this week, the completion of the reservoir itself.
Though more construction must be completed before it is open to the public, the last pour of concrete was completed for the 12.4 million-gallon reservoir on Wednesday.
The reservoir will begin being filled with water Monday, December 14, and it is expected to begin servicing Portland’s west side by spring 2021. The ready-to-drink water will be from the Bull Run Watershed and serve some 360,000 customers.
“Our water system’s strength lies in the skills, ability, and creativity that our employees, consultants, and contractors bring to work every day. On this project, we’ve worked hard, worked safely, and we’ve adapted,” remarked Engineering Manager Jodie Inman during a virtually held ceremony of celebrating the milestone Monday. She noted the project exceeded its minority and female apprentice and journeyman participation goals.
Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who is in charge of the Water Bureau, thanked the department for its hard work in the project as participants in the virtual celebration gave a toast to her.
“It has been a pleasure to work knowing that I took part in the Water Bureau’s legacy of careful stewardship of natural resources, infrastructure and public trust. May we always remember that water is essential,” Fritz said.
Hoffman Construction Operations Manager Cary Bubenik likened the project to building a “ship in a bottle” as the team had to find creative solutions to build on an ancient landslide in Washington Park. Despite the technical challenges and the pandemic, the Bubenik touted the construction firm as not missing a single schedule concrete pour.
Also honored at the ceremony was the memory of the late City Commissioner Nick Fish, who will be featured on a public plaque, along with other city officials and leads of the project, once the site reaches its scheduled completion in 2025. Fish lead the Bureau of Environmental Services while he was commissioner, a partnering agency of the project.
Fish’s wife, Patricia Schechter, who is also a resident of the nearby Goose Hollow neighborhood, expressed her thanks for the honor.
“I am so grateful to have been included in the milestone ceremony. Thank you for honoring Nick and our family. To witness your continued affection and respect for him helps ease our still very bruised hearts,” Schechter said.
The the reservoir portion of the project is now complete and water will begin begin served to customers on Portland’s west side in spring 2021, there is still more construction needed to be completed before it is open to the public in 2025.
Components of the reservoir once it is publicly accessible include a reflective pool that will be built on top of the reservoir and a promenade surrounding that.
The project began in 2016 with a goal of upgrading the more than 100-yar-old uncovered reservoirs. Due to trace amounts of a contaminant called cryptosporidium, the federal government mandated that Portland reservoirs be covered or buried.
The construction taking place near an ancient landslide and the threat of any earthquakes meant modernizing the site’s seismic standards was essential, that included installing 4-foot-thick concrete floors and 6 million pounds of rebar, among other measures.
After the reservoir is filled and servicing the surrounding area, the site construction will undergo a two-year pause from 2021-2023 in order to allow recently placed soil along the base of the nearby landslide to settle into place. The final construction phase of the reflecting pool and promenade can then be safely built on top of the settled soil.