The city's efforts to ship more than 100,000 tons of trash each year to a Washington state landfill at an annual cost of $7 million has cleared a final hurdle as the last of four protests over bids for the project has been resolved.

City officials hope that barges carrying wrapped packages of O'ahu's trash will be moving off-island by July 1.

In January, the city upheld the low bid from one of three firms bidding to ship some of O'ahu's trash to a landfill in Roosevelt, Wash.

The low bid, from Hawaiian Waste Systems, was challenged with four protests from the two competing bidders, Off-Island Transfer and Simcoe Environmental Services Inc., which claimed Hawaiian Waste was low-balling the project.

Hawaiian Waste submitted a bid of $99 per ton to ship trash from O'ahu to the Washington landfill.

Simcoe bid $184.47 per ton and Off-Island bid $204.21 per ton.

"All of the protests filed thus far have been resolved, as they were denied and no appeals were taken by the two protesting bidders. This lifted the statutory stay against taking any steps toward awarding a contract. The city, therefore, has been evaluating the low bid," said Tim Steinberger, city director of Environmental Services.

"We believe the July 1 start date set forth in the Request for Bids is realistic and will continue to work towards awarding a contract in order to meet that deadline. If the evaluation process moves quickly, contract award goes smoothly, and all permits are secured by the low bidder, an earlier start may be possible," Steinberger said.

Hawaiian Waste Systems owns a 2.7-acre trans-shipment facility in Campbell Industrial Park, less than three-fourths of a mile from the landfill, and has received approval from the state Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin shipping O'ahu's trash.

City Council Chairman Todd K. Apo said city officials recently visited the Hawaiian Waste Systems site to ensure that the facility is above board and ready to work.

"Even with the protests, we should have had this implemented by now," Apo said. "I think myself and the council are looking for this to be implemented ahead of the city's July 1 date. I certainly hope there are no further delays in implementation."

Shipping trash out of state is intended to buy time for the island's only municipal landfill, at Waimanalo Gulch in Leeward O'ahu. That landfill has come close to its capacity at times and is operating under an 18-month extension that expires Nov. 1.

The city has announced plans to seek a 92-acre expansion and 15-year extension to the life of the landfill.