Dean Guernsey / The Bulletin file photoThe Colorado Avenue dam is shown in this file photo.

The Bend Park & Recreation District will put all remaining contingency funds from a 2012 bond measure toward completing the “safe passage” project at the Colorado Avenue dam.

Tuesday, the district’s board of directors voted to award a $7.68 million construction contract for the project to Hamilton Construction Co. and increase the total allocation for the project in the district’s capital improvement plan to $9.68 million.

The cost of improvements at the dam were estimated in November 2012 at $6.3 million, when voters approved a $29 million bond package funding new park facilities.

The safe passage project would split the Deschutes River into three distinct channels below the Colorado Avenue dam — one for wildlife habitat, one that will allow boaters and floaters to pass the dam without getting out of the water, and a third that will use a series of pneumatically controlled bladders to create whitewater conditions for more experienced river-runners .

District staff and the board did not go into great detail to explain the discrepancy between earlier estimates and the contract awarded Tuesday.

The district’s costs will be offset in part through contributions from the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance. The group, which had earlier committed to raising $900,000 for the project, presented the district with its second $300,000 check Tuesday, promised a third $300,000 check by Oct. 15 and committed to raising an additional $233,737 to be put toward the bladders system.

To close the more than $2 million shortfall remaining even after accounting for the alliance’s contribution, Michelle Healy, the district’s strategic planning and design director, advised the board to tap the bond contingency fund and the facilities reserve fund. Healy said the cost of the bladder system is likely to go up if the project is delayed, and the district might have to seek new permits from state and federal regulatory agencies if in-water work is put off for too long.

District Executive Director Don Horton advised board members that Healy’s proposal to take more than $1.27 million from bond contingency funds would deplete that fund, even while large bond projects such as the Simpson Pavilion and ice rink have yet to break ground. Horton said it’s not realistic to wait until the pavilion project is closer to construction to assess the two projects side by side, and that the district needs to begin in-water work as soon as possible.

Board member Scott Asla said the dam project is a “huge face” of the 2012 bond that the public expects the district to deliver on.

District landscape architect Chelsea Schneider said Hamilton Construction Co. is prepared to begin work on the project Oct. 1.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com