City engineers who build and maintain Bend’s streets, technicians who tinker with heavy equipment and workers who keep water flowing to faucets are looking forward to the completion of a brand-new public works campus in northeast Bend.

The facility is meant to accommodate the city’s growing public works departments, now bulging from outdated facilities.

Construction crews have leveled ground and are laying foundation and piping at the 35-acre site at Juniper Ridge, a planned industrial development area bordering Bend’s city limits. Though none of the three buildings on campus — which will house offices for administration, a maintenance shop for the city’s vehicle fleet and other vehicle storage — have started going up, construction work is about one-fifth complete, said Jo Wells, facilities manager with the city of Bend.

The project is on track to finish up by the end of 2025, the same deadline by which the city’s utility department must move out of its current 5-acre facility on Boyd Acres Road.

Money from the sale of the Boyd Acres site will contribute to financing the new $130-million campus. More funding will come from 30 years of debt financing split among five city departments under the public works umbrella, and from future sales of city-owned land at Juniper Ridge.

In 2020, the city created a three-phase plan for Juniper Ridge, a 350-acre tract slated for industrial and commercial development. Late last year, the City Council shifted 200 acres in Juniper Ridge into surplus property. Hundreds more city-owned acres lie outside the Juniper Ridge planning area.

The new public works campus is among the first developments in the budding commercial and industrial area, joining Les Schwab Tire Centers, Suterra and PacifiCorp.

A new headquarters

The first indications that Bend was outgrowing its public works facilities came nearly two decades ago, Wells said. Those buildings were not specifically designed for public works uses.

Formal discussions about a new campus began in 2015, and exploration for a conglomerate site started three years later. Juniper Ridge was picked three years later for its ample space and future industrial character.

Read more: City of Bend to sell public works yard, plans move to Juniper Ridge

The new campus will bring together five city departments — engineering and infrastructure planning, facilities, fleet, transportation and mobility and utilities — currently scattered across Bend.

Their administrators will work from a new 45,000-square-foot headquarters situated near a naturally-preserved area at the middle of campus. Crews are ready to start going vertical on the building, which will be assembled from panels of cross-laminated timber.

The construction project is full of sustainability goals, Wells said. Crews aren’t bringing in any off-site fill, using only dirt only that’s already there. The design attempts to incorporate the natural High Desert landscape, Wells said.

When buildings are up and running, the campus won’t use natural gas and is expected to be energy-neutral, guided by a central utility plant that will deliver power and water through what is currently a 40-foot-wide trench slicing through the construction site.

“Having a modern, highly efficient set of buildings will definitely be a new thing for the city,” Wells said.

Read more: City of Bend selects construction company, architecture firm for Juniper Ridge project

Chief Operations Officer Russ Grayson, who oversees three public works departments, said the move will not only provide a larger space, but fuse connections between employees who already work together.

The unification of public works departments comes as Bend embarks on dozens of traffic safety improvements across the city through the $190 million transportation general obligation passed in 2020. The projects require cross-department collaboration between engineers, who carry out design and construction, and transportation and mobility experts, who maintain the projects.

If a paving vehicle needs maintenance, for example, the shop will be only a few hundred yards from the yard where it’s parked, saving time.

Though the changes might not be apparent to the average Bend resident, Grayson said, “it’s definitely going to have some operational efficiencies to it.”

Come wintertime, a new “warm-vehicle” storage facility will keep temperatures above 32 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent parts on snow plows and street sweepers from freezing, and cutting the time it takes to warm their engines in the morning.

Room to grow

Based on the city’s growth projections the new campus is expected to reach capacity in 30 years, Wells said. The site at Juniper Ridge has room for at least one extra building when time comes to expand again.

“If we’re going to invest in a new campus, really making sure that it will last through our growth into the future is an important thing,” Wells said.

Public art proposed

This month, the public can get involved with the project by providing input on the future artwork at the headquarters building. Two renderings will be on display at the Deschutes Public Library in downtown Bend from June 15-25, according to a news release.