Report of Independent Accountants To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Northwest Pipe Company In our opinion, the accompanying consolidated balance sheets and the related consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income, of changes in stockholders’ equity and of cash flows present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Northwest Pipe Company and its subsidiaries (the Company) at December 31, 2000 and 1999, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2000, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management; our responsibility is to express an opin- ion on these financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits of these statements in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, which require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by manage- ment, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Portland, Oregon February 16, 2001 Northwest Pipe Company | 27