Sackett Contracting & Excavating, of Nordman, Idaho, is the apparent low bidder, with a bid of $1.6 million, for a city of Cheney contract to make infrastructure improvements to the 38-acre Cheney Research & Industrial Park, which the city is developing jointly with a Spokane manufacturer.

The city of Cheney owns 21 acres of the 38-acre park, located north of state Route 904 and west of Presley Drive.

The work will include constructing roads, curbs, sidewalks, a sewer system, a water system, and an underground electrical and telecommunications system. Once a contract is awarded, the project is expected to take 165 days to complete.

The other 17 acres of the park are owned by Allpak Container East LLC, a Spokane-based maker of packaging. Allpak bought the entire property in late 2006, and sold some of it to the city soon after. Allpak occupies the only structure there, the 113,000-square-foot former Honeywell Electronic Materials building. The city and Allpak are collaborating to bring infrastructure to the remainder of the property with the hope that it will attract other businesses to the park.

Taylor Engineering Inc., of Spokane, is designing the infrastructure project.

Cheney has a $1.4 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant to help pay for infrastructure work there, and is supplementing it with $220,000 from city funds and $180,000 from Allpak, bringing its total budget for design and construction to $1.8 million.