An Eastern Washington company recently won the bid to expand the Lincoln County Landfill.

The county commissioners unanimously approved awarding the contract to M.A. DeAtley Construction, Clarkston, Washington at the Feb. 26 meeting. DeAtley’s $5.05 bid was well under the offers made by five competitors, including two Libby companies.

DeAtley’s bid of $5,049,375.10 bested Stanfield, Oregon’s Swaggart Brothers bid of $5,346,770.00 and Libby’s Noble Excavating offer of $5,372,930.00.

Three other bids exceeded $6 million. They included a $6,026,366.62 bid from North Dakota’s Baranko Brothers, a $6,472,746.10 bid from Libby’s Thompson Contracting and a $8,142,114.30 offer from S & L Underground, a Bonners Ferry, Idaho company.

The bids were opened at the Feb. 19 commission meeting.

The range of bids saw District 3 Commissioner Noel Duram question the history of bid overruns for DeAtley.

County Health Department Director Kathi Hooper said her research through GreatWest Engineering indicated similar projects coming in on time, in a quality manner with minimal change orders. 

According to its website, DeAtley has handled project valued from $100,000 to $50 million.

The expansion includes about 17.4 acres of property located southeast of the current landfill at 2501 Pipe Creek Road. An existing drive will be used to access the site from the main entrance off Pipe Creek Road via Libby Landfill Road. Of the 17.4 acres, 14.3 acres will be used for active landfilling activities. The remaining acreage would remain undisturbed.

The existing landfill is expected to reach capacity in 2027. In its application, Lincoln County explained that the expansion would allow for the continued acceptance of Group II, Group III and Group IV waste, all of which are accepted at the existing landfill, alleviating the need for this waste to be transported outside of the county for final disposal. 

The proposed expansion would extend the timeline for active landfilling in this area by about 29 years.