Contract Chain

Bellingham's USD 22.47m marine contract exposes a 30-company downstream chain

Published 12 August 2026 Publisher IMWO Region Americas Confidence Confirmed
Official Bellingham Shipping Terminal structural demolition plan showing the Central Terminal wharf deck, piles and pile removal limits, utilities and demolition area

Port of Bellingham / Moffatt & Nichol; official PW 23-10 bid drawing SD-101, final submittal issued 12 July 2023

American Construction's USD 22,472,328.83 award covers contaminated-sediment dredging, a new heavy-lift wharf, terminal repairs and utilities at Bellingham Shipping Terminal. Washington L&I identifies 30 unique downstream companies through 37 intent filings and 35 affidavit filings, but the statutory chain is not a substitute for executed-scope, quantity or acceptance evidence.

The award, contractor completion filing and lower-tier ledger are now connected

The Port bid page and tab identify the prime award and bid comparison. The owner project page, releases and bid drawings describe the project budget, scope, geometry, baseline timing and bounded progress statements. Washington L&I lists the statutory filing chain and contractor-reported dates and amounts. The filings do not establish actual package performance, payment, owner acceptance or final account, and no filing values are summed.

A public filing chain can reveal market structure without proving delivery

PW 23-10 shows how a prime marine contract fans out across structural, deep-foundation, concrete, steel, diving, electrical, survey, environmental, paving, haulage and supply relationships. The filings expose nested chains beneath Strider Construction, Lakeside Industries, Langco NW, Service Electric and Waste Management. They also expose why commercial totals cannot be built by addition: intent and affidavit values can differ, the same company can file more than once, and lower-tier values may sit inside higher-tier packages.

Evidence conclusion

Owner acceptance remains distinct from contractor-reported completion

The strongest public baseline is the Port's USD 22,472,328.83 accepted bid, separate from the USD 27.5 million whole-modernization budget. L&I's USD 25,966,774.06 American Construction affidavit and 8 April 2026 work-completed date are contractor filings, not a Port-approved final account or Notice of Completion. Major first-tier filings include Strider at USD 2,267,050 intent and USD 2,973,927.40 affidavit, Concrete Technology at USD 1,535,406 intent and USD 1,542,130 affidavit, Malcolm Drilling at USD 1,081,914 intent with no completion affidavit, Jesse Engineering at USD 563,189 and Crux Diving at USD 264,435.07. None should be summed. The decisive closeout evidence is still the Port's accepted final bathymetry and dredged quantity, structural and systems handover, environmental closeout, Notice of Completion and final account.

Outstanding evidence

  • Port Notice of Completion and formal acceptance
  • Final dredged and disposed quantity versus 22,000 cubic yards
  • Accepted -35-foot MLLW bathymetry and navigation release
  • Heavy-lift wharf structural and load acceptance
  • Stormwater and shore-power-enabling utility handover
  • American Construction change-order reconciliation and final account
  • Malcolm Drilling completion affidavit or package closeout
  • Actual executed packages for the 30 named downstream companies
  • Repeated and revised L&I filings that must remain non-additive

Related records 1

Subject index

Related subjects

These subject pages bring together related projects, technical articles, reports, and evidence methods.

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