Bill Oakes hasn’t done the math to figure out the odds that 14 companies would bid on a construction project and that two would tie for lowest bid. But he knows that it’s very, very unlikely to happen.

So employees at the Island County Public Works Department were understandably surprised when they opened bids last week on a project to expand a facility at the county’s solid waste transfer station and discovered that the two lowest matched, down to the penny.

“It’s never happened before while I’ve been here, but it’s not unheard of,” said Oakes, the director of public works.

Two Bellingham companies, Vertical, Inc. and Myers General Commercial Inc., bid $368,560.00. Oakes said he’s not suspicious about the tie because he looked at the bid proposals and the two companies came to the same number in different ways.

Ties are so unusual that they’re not addressed in the standard specifications book that public works relies on. Oakes said his staff will check the references on the two companies and check over the math in the bids.

If everything checks out, Oakes said he’ll recommend “some sort of random selection,” possibly a coin flip, to chose the winning bidder.

The project will be funded through solid waste fees. The winning company will expand a concrete slab and the steel building overhead at the transfer station south of Coupeville.