Northwest Public-Works Bid Digest: Week of August 10, 2026

This is our weekly roundup of open public-works bid opportunities across the Northwest that matter to electrical and utility contractors — substation and transmission work, distribution, plant electrical, and the equipment packages that go with them. We update it every Monday. Every listing below was pulled from the owner's own solicitation page (or a public-power board that links back to it), links to that page, and had a bid due date in the future when we published. If we can only verify a handful in a given week, we publish the handful — no expired listings, no padding.

This is a short, honest week: three verified solicitations, one each in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and they run the range from an overhead transmission build down to a low-voltage fire-alarm package. A lot of the summer's equipment buys have already closed (more on that at the bottom), which is part of why the list is lean. The nearest deadline is tomorrow, so if the Benton PUD transmission line is your kind of work, read that section first.

This Week at a Glance

Sunset to Dallas Transmission Line Construction (26-21-06) — Benton PUD

Benton PUD in Kennewick is taking sealed bids on construction of the Sunset to Dallas transmission line. This is the only overhead fieldwork package on the list this week and the biggest job here for anyone doing transmission construction.

• Due: Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 3:00 PM PT, sealed bid to Benton PUD Procurement Department, PO Box 6270 / 1500 S. Ely, Kennewick, WA 99337, marked Bid #26-21-06. Questions to cp@bentonpud.org.
• Source: bentonpud.org/procurement

Worth checking: Benton's solicitation calls for a bid bond equal to 5% of the bid amount, and the successful bidder carries a 100% performance bond — build both into your number and confirm your bonding capacity before you commit. Before you price, pin down whether structures, conductor, and hardware are owner-furnished or contractor-furnished; on PUD transmission jobs that split varies a lot and it swings the number hard. Pull the outage and energization constraints too — working near an energized system changes your crew plan and your schedule. Washington prevailing wage applies. With the clock down to a day, confirm the current due date and submission location on the source page before you build your bid.

Underground Cable Replacement — Cea Jac Rd (ITB 9-26) — Emerald PUD

Emerald People's Utility District, which serves rural Lane County in Oregon, has an invitation to bid for an underground cable replacement on Cea Jac Road. It's a compact distribution job — the kind of package that fits a smaller line or UG contractor.

• Due: Tuesday, August 19, 2026, 12:00 PM PT. Bids go to Cassie Stavros, Contracts and Records Specialist; documents and submission instructions are in the ITB package.
• Scope: Bore roughly 1,500 ft of new 2-inch conduit, pull in new underground wire to replace the existing run, and replace two transformers.
• Source: epud.org bids, contracts & proposals

Worth checking: The whole job hinges on the bore — confirm the 1,500-ft alignment, soil and locate assumptions, and any traffic-control or restoration requirements against Exhibit A1 before you price the directional work. Two transformer swaps mean outage coordination and switching windows with EPUD, so read for who owns that scheduling and any after-hours or weekend constraints. The ITB references exhibits for scope, design, parts list, and general specs, and points you to EPUD's purchasing policy — pull the full package to confirm bond and Oregon prevailing-wage requirements, which aren't spelled out on the summary page.

Food Quality Assurance Lab — Fire Alarm System (Project 26030) — Idaho Division of Public Works

The Idaho Division of Public Works has advertised a fire-alarm system project for the Food Quality Assurance Lab in Twin Falls. It's a low-voltage electrical package rather than utility work, but it's a clean state job for a licensed electrical contractor.

• Due: Bid date Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Confirm the exact time and submission method on the DPW advertisement for Project 26030.
• Source: dpw.idaho.gov/construction

Worth checking: This is a fire-alarm scope in an operating lab, so read for whether it's a full head-end replacement or an addition tied to existing panels — device counts and panel compatibility drive the number. Check the phasing and occupied-facility requirements: fire-alarm cutovers in a working building usually mean after-hours work, temporary protection, and AHJ coordination for the tie-in and acceptance testing. As a state DPW job, expect the Idaho Public Works Contractor License requirement and a bid bond — verify the bond percentage and the bidder-qualification language in the project manual, and confirm whether any related mechanical work (DPW has a separate HVAC package advertised) touches your scope.

A Few Notes Before You Chase These

Three isn't a big week, and the reason is timing: several of the equipment and services solicitations that were open through July have already closed. Two we watched go by are good reminders to move on these while they're live — Cowlitz PUD's Swift No. 2 13.8kV bus-upgrade equipment procurement (Contract SW191) closed July 21, and the City of Milton-Freewater's engineering-services RFQ for its substation upgrades closed June 25. Both were solid Northwest utility work; both are gone. That's the case for the weekly cadence — the furnish-and-deliver and design packages tend to open and close inside a few weeks in the summer.

One more to keep an eye on if you serve that territory: Lewis County PUD has a Packaged Substation solicitation (IFB 26-045) posted on the NWPPA RFP/RFQ board as of July 22 — furnish of a packaged substation and accessories, including delivery. We couldn't independently confirm the exact bid due date against the district's own portal this week, so we're not listing it as a dated opportunity — but it's worth pulling directly from Lewis County PUD's Public Purchase page before you assume it's closed.

Dates and times above were verified against each owner's own solicitation page (or a public-power board linking back to it) the day we published, but addenda move targets — always confirm the current due date, submission method, and any pre-bid requirement on the source page before you build your bid.

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If you're bidding one of these, we can turn the solicitation into a full AI bid brief — bonds, prevailing wage, owner-furnished equipment, submittal windows, and the rest — at deadfront.ai; see real example briefs for how they read.