Northwest Public-Works Bid Digest: Week of August 17, 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, fiber and plant electrical, and the material packages that go with them. We update it every Monday. Every listing below came off the owner's own solicitation page, links back to it, and had a bid due date in the future when we published. Some weeks that's a dozen jobs; some weeks it's a handful. This is a handful week, and we'd rather give you four verified ones than pad the list.

It's also a fast one. Nothing below runs past September 1, and the nearest deadline is a week out. Two of the four are Idaho jobs, one's a Washington PUD material buy, and one's an Oregon PUD facilities package. We checked Montana's A&E division and the usual WA/OR portals too — nothing electrical with a live date this week — so if you work Montana, this one's thin for you. Here's what's open.

This Week at a Glance

336.4 ACSR Conductor (471-26) — Okanogan County PUD

Okanogan County PUD has a call for bids out for 336.4 ACSR conductor — a standard 336.4 kcmil aluminum-conductor-steel-reinforced overhead line conductor. This is a furnish-and-deliver material package, not fieldwork, and it's the one on this list aimed squarely at line-material suppliers serving north-central Washington.

• Due: Monday, August 24, 2026, 1:30 PM PT (extended date). Bid 471-26. Contact Roy Schwilke at (509) 422-8484 or roys@okpud.org.
• Source: okanoganpud.org bid invitations

Worth checking: On a conductor buy, the number lives in the delivery terms — pull the required reel lengths, total footage, stranding, and the delivery point and freight basis before you price, and confirm the required delivery date and whether liquidated damages attach to it. Check the bid-security requirement (material buys sometimes still call for a bid bond) and any domestic-content or Buy America language, which is increasingly common on federally supported utility material. Washington prevailing wage generally doesn't apply to a pure supply order, but confirm that on the solicitation rather than assuming. Okanogan lists a couple of other line-material and substation items on the same page — worth a scan if you stock this category.

Fiber Installation Packages (IFP-26-25 & IFP-26-26) — Idaho Falls Power

Idaho Falls Power, the city's municipal utility, has two fiber construction packages open with the same due date. One covers residential drop installation — running fiber, setting the optical network terminal, and the required splicing — and the other covers microduct drop installation at depths greater than 18 inches. Together they're a clean fit for an underground/fiber contractor working the Idaho Falls buildout.

• Due: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 — IFP-26-25 (Residential Installation) at 1:00 PM MT, IFP-26-26 (Microduct Drop, deep) at 1:30 PM MT.
• Scope: IFP-26-25 — fiber, ONT device, and splicing for Idaho Falls Fiber service to a structure. IFP-26-26 — individual microduct install for a broadband drop deeper than 18 inches.
• Source: idahofallsidaho.gov bids

Worth checking: These read as unit-price drop work, so confirm whether you're pricing a fixed quantity or a term/unit-price contract with estimated volumes — that changes how you carry mobilization, locates, and restoration. Idaho has no state prevailing-wage law, but broadband buildouts are frequently grant-funded (BEAD and similar), and federal money can pull in Davis-Bacon wage rates — check the documents for any wage determination before you bid it as private-rate work. Pin down the boring-versus-trenching assumption on the deep microduct package, restoration standards, and the Idaho Public Works Contractor License and bonding requirements. Full documents are on the city's QuestCDN plan room linked from the bids page.

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

The Idaho Division of Public Works has a fire-alarm project advertised for the Food Quality Assurance Lab at the College of Southern Idaho campus in Twin Falls. It's low-voltage electrical rather than utility work, and it's a small, clean state job for a licensed electrical contractor — the state's own estimate is $118,125.

• Due: Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 2:00 PM MT, sealed to the Division of Public Works, 502 N. 4th St., PO Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0072, for DPW Project 26030.
• Scope: Install a new fire-alarm system — detection and notification — for the existing Food Quality Assurance Laboratory (Department of Agriculture). Site-access coordination with Ag facilities is required.
• Source: dpw.idaho.gov/construction

Worth checking: A bid bond of 5% of the total bid (including add alternates) is required, and an Idaho Public Works Contractor's License is required to bid — verify both before you commit time to it. The pre-bid conference was August 13, so that site walk is already behind you; if you didn't attend, lean on the drawings and call the DPW coordinator with questions rather than assuming panel and device conditions. Because this is a full new system in an operating lab, read for detection and notification device counts, head-end and panel type, and any occupied-facility phasing or after-hours acceptance-testing requirements. Documents are available from the design professional for a refundable $250 deposit, or through the Idaho AGC plan room.

McNary CO2 Fire Suppression System — Northern Wasco County PUD

Northern Wasco County PUD, out of The Dalles, has an RFP open for a CO2 fire-suppression system at its McNary facility. This one is more mechanical/special-hazard than line work, so we're flagging it honestly — but there's a real electrical scope in the detection, releasing, and alarm-interface side, and it's PUD work close to home for Columbia Gorge contractors.

• Due: Thursday, August 27, 2026, 2:00 PM PT. The summary page points bidders to the full solicitation package for scope and submission instructions.
• Source: nwascopud.org RFPs/ITBs

Worth checking: Because it's issued as an RFP, confirm first whether the district is taking hard sealed bids or scored proposals — that decides whether you're sharpening a number or writing an approach. Pull the full package for the special-hazard scope, the detection-and-releasing controls tie-in, and any interface to existing fire alarm or SCADA. As a PUD job in Oregon, expect Oregon prevailing wage (BOLI) and a bid-security requirement — verify the percentage and any bonding in the documents, and read for occupied-facility and outage constraints, since CO2 discharge testing in a live utility building carries its own coordination and safety requirements.

Before You Chase These

Four is a lean week, and the calendar is the reason: a lot of the summer's Northwest utility work — Benton PUD's Sunset to Dallas transmission line, McMinnville Water & Light's East substation expansion, and several equipment buys — has already closed. That's the case for watching this weekly. Furnish-and-deliver and short-fuse packages like the Okanogan conductor buy open and close inside a couple of weeks, and if you're not looking every Monday you miss them.

Dates and times above were verified against each owner's own solicitation page 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.