Northwest Public-Works Bid Digest: Week of October 19, 2026

This is our weekly new-and-changed update for Northwest electrical and utility contractors. The short version this week: Cowlitz PUD opened a new 1272 ACSS conductor supply contract, Mason County PUD No. 3 moved its substation transformer close date back two weeks, and five bids carry over still open. Every open bid we track lives on the board at deadfront.ai/bids/open — this post just covers what moved since last Monday.

New this week

1272 ACSS Overhead Aluminum Conductor Supply (UC1863) — Cowlitz County PUD No. 1 (Longview, WA). Sealed bids are due before 2:00 PM PT on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, with a public opening right after. No pre-bid meeting. The scope is a straight material buy: supply and deliver 67,424 feet of 1272 kcmil ACSS "Bittern" overhead aluminum conductor on the District's bid proposal form. Source.

Worth checking: this is a supply contract, not field work, so it comes down to mill pricing, reel logistics, and whether you can hold a quote — bid security is a 5% bid bond, cashier's check, or certified check, and the District reserves the right to split the award across more than one vendor. The schedule asks for first shipment by April 1, 2027, so lead time from your conductor supplier is the number that decides whether you can commit. It's the only new solicitation we could verify on an owner's own page this week; we ran the usual WA, OR, ID, and MT portals and agency pages — PUDs, co-ops, municipal utilities, cities, ports, and counties — and nothing else matching install or line work had a live future due date we could stand behind on the source site. Northern Wasco's open items this week are a fiber-to-the-premises job and two service contracts, not line or substation work, so they're outside what this digest covers.

Changed

• Substation Power Transformer (M2-2026) — Mason County PUD No. 3: the close date moved from October 21, 2026, 3:00 PM PT to November 4, 2026, 3:00 PM PT — two more weeks on the clock for this substation-class transformer buy. The District's RFPs/bids page now shows the November 4 date and lists no addenda. If you'd already penciled this one for next week, reset your calendar. Source.

No other open bid changed this week — same due dates, same scopes, no cancellations. Eldon-to-Duckabush still carries only Addendum 1 (posted October 9), and its mandatory pre-bid job show on October 6 remains past, so that one is closed to any shop that didn't attend.

Still open

Four of the five are supply contracts — conductor, switchgear, and two transformer packages — where the technical spec, delivery date, and any capitalized-loss evaluation drive the number more than crew rates. Eldon-to-Duckabush is the one field job, but its mandatory pre-bid has passed, so it's effectively closed to new bidders. Everything else stays open to anyone who can price it. Dates above were verified against each owner's own solicitation page the day we published, but addenda move targets — confirm the current due date and any pre-bid requirement on the source page before you build your bid.

Eldon to Duckabush Overhead Rebuild: Full AI brief → https://www.deadfront.ai/bids/mason-pud-eldon-duckabush-reconductor

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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.