The price tag for replacing the aging Hood Canal Bridge increased 62 percent between February and October of 2005, but there still is no date set for when construction will be complete.
In the state Department of Transportation’s latest estimate of the total cost of the project included in its 2005 fourth quarter report, the bridge’s price tag jumped $179.4 million from a February 2005 estimate of $291.5 million to an October estimate of almost $471 million.
“The idea is that we’re not going to spend every penny of that. It’s just the total budgeted amount,” said Lloyd Brown, a Transportation spokesman.
Included in the price tag is the rising price of steel and an additional $59.3 million to build bridge pontoon parts in Tacoma rather than in Port Angeles.
The contract for bridge construction was originally awarded to Kiewit-General Construction Co. of Poulsbo in December 2003 for $203 million, not including property and other costs.
PA expenses increase
The amount of money spent or earmarked in Port Angeles for the now-defunct graving yard also climbed — from an estimated $58.5 million in February to an estimated $86.8 million in October.
Tse-whit-zen expenses include construction costs, legal settlements, engineering and design, landscaping, materials, land acquisition and leases, anchor cable replacement, archaeological work and department contract management.
There also is about $2.1 million in new money added to the budget for “remaining archaeology work.”
Brown said that he did not know what that money would be spent for.
The archaeology stems from the discovery — after the huge dry dock for bridge component construction was started in summer 2003 — of a 2,700-year-old Klallam village and more than 300 burials.
The graving yard construction project was canceled in December 2004.
Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, said she did not know what the newly budget archaeological money would go for, nor had she been contacted by Transportation about the budget adjustments.
The human remains found at the ancient village are ancestors of the Lower Elwha Klallam.
Port Angeles may be the site of the bridge’s concrete anchor construction, but the location has not been finalized, and neither has the cost.
