Flush with a new contract, more Portland Loos are coming

City will pay about $56,000 apiece for the new ones, much less than the prototype

By Kevin Harden

The Portland Tribune, Aug 29, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (12 Reader comments)

The Portland Loo prototype on Northwest Fifth Avenue opened in early December. Four new loos will be built under a city contract with Lynch Mechanical Construction.

Tribune File Photo

Four more Portland Loos are on the way.

Portland Water Bureau officials plan to sign a contract worth about $230,000 in the next few days with Lynch Mechanical Construction LLC of Northwest Portland to build the four public toilets. One of them will be installed in the Pearl District’s Jamison Square area. The others could be placed around Old Town or in the Rose Quarter, but the city hasn’t made a decision on their locations.

Each of the toilets will cost about $56,919, considerably less than the estimated $140,000 the prototype cost to fabricate and install in Old Town last fall.

The actual contract, which must still be signed, is for $227,676. The city had budgeted $250,000 for the project and originally planned to build six new loos.

Mark Gunderson, Lynch Mechanical general manager, said the contract comes at a good time for his shop. His fabrication business usually has about 20 people in the field, but the sour economy has cut his work force to eight people, Gunderson said.

“That’s going to keep three or four people busy for a good month,” he said. “This came at the right time for us. Rest assured that we’re excited about the project.”

Assembling the pieces

Portland Loos are those 24-hour-a-day solar-powered public toilets fashioned to provide some privacy but also set up to discourage crime and vandalism. The first one was installed in early December at Northwest Fifth Avenue and Glisan Street in Old Town. It has been used a lot, but had some trouble during last winter’s heavy snow storm that knocked out the solar panels, shutting off lights and the automatic flush mechanism.

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