Newport Beach awards $4-million contract for construction of Newport Bay Trash Wheel

It’s official. The Newport Bay Trash Wheel is on its way.

After years of efforts, the Newport Beach City Council awarded a nearly $4-million contract for the construction of the solar-powered, trash-snaring receptacle on Tuesday as part of its consent calendar to Jilk Heavy Construction, based in Brea.

Jilk’s winning bid came in at $3.98 million while the only other bid the city received, from CJW Construction in Santa Ana, totaled $6.55 million. Both are substantially higher than city engineers’ original estimate of $2.62 million for the project.

The uptick in costs is not associated with higher material costs but due to the unique nature of the project, its unusual components and site constraints, according to a staff report. There are no similar projects in Newport Beach the city’s engineering design consultant could use as a basis for estimate.

Compared to Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel, which cost $1.5 million in 2014 to design, permit and construct, the Newport Bay Trash Wheel will not be located on a river that allows dumpsters to be removed by water via small tugboats.

“As the chair of the Water Quality Committee, I’m excited and eager to get moving forward with the trash interceptor,” Councilman Joe Stapleton said before the vote.

Randall English, past president of the Newport Bay Conservancy, said there was a lot of time and energy spent reengineering the project and that the conservancy was very supportive of the move.

The Newport Harbor Foundation also vouched its support for the project, which will be sorting through trash on the north bank of San Diego Creek — the largest creek tributary to Newport Bay.

City staff said large volumes of trash and debris are conveyed into Newport Bay from the creek, sometimes exceeding volumes of 300 cubic yards during heavy storm seasons. A large portion of the trash tends to settle on the vegetated intertidal areas around the upper bay and beaches at the Newport Dunes, according to city staff, while some trash and debris enters the open ocean through the Newport jetty.

The trash wheel will have two booms that will span the width of the San Diego Creek and funnel trash toward a stationary barge, which will be mounted onto a 17-foot water wheel. Debris collected would end up on a conveyor belt, then travel into two dumpsters on a fixed rail system. Those two dumpsters would then be conveyed to a disposal site on land.

The state Coastal Commission gave its approval of the project plans in June last year. Funding will come from the state, Orange County Transportation Authority Measure M funds, the Ocean Protection Council and the city’s own environmental liability fund fees program. With approvals Tuesday, the notice to proceed with construction is expected to be issued in August 2024.