PORT TOWNSEND — When contractors start demolishing the north jetty at Hudson Point on Thursday, it will initiate a long-awaited project to remove and replace the deteriorating structure protecting the marina.
It also represents a continuation of change that has distinguished the point of land on Admiralty Inlet and Port Townsend Bay.
The Port of Port Townsend on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. will conduct a groundbreaking ceremony at Point Hudson Marina to commence the project intended to rebuild the almost 90-year-old north and south jetties in a manner that honors their original aesthetic, but uses contemporary design and material elements.
Long before the jetties were constructed in 1934, however, Point Hudson was S’Klallam territory and landing and camping site for other tribes, like the Makah.
According to “Point Hudson: Historic Walking Tour,” published by the Jefferson County Historical Society,” the area was after named after naval Commander William L. Hudson, a member of an exploring expedition to the Pacific Northwest, in 1841.
By the late nineteenth century, a sawmill was operating at the entrance to the harbor. In May 1936, Port Hudson shifted from commercial to government use when a U.S. quarantine station opened. Among the 10 buildings were a hospital and a detention barracks for those suspected of suffering from of carrying infectious disease such as smallpox, influenza and cholera. The disinfecting building is now home to the Shanghai Chinese Restaurant and Hudson Point Cafe.
It was during this era that construction of the jetties took place, creating the two long arms reaching into Port Townsend Bay: the north jetty jutting at a right angle from the east side of the marina entrance and the slightly longer and straighter south jetty anchored to the west side.
The U.S. Army and Coast Guard took over Point Hudson during World War II. It was deactivated in 1953 and three years later the Army sold the property to the Port of Port Townsend.
The port conducted a major overhaul of the jetties in 1969 and made minor repairs in 1996. Both extended the life of the jetties but did not prevent their inevitable obsolescence.
Port Executive Director Eron Berg, and Matt Klontz, director of capital projects and chief engineer, admit that replacing the jetties today comes with scrutiny and red tape the original builders never encountered.
There was little concern then about ecological impact, input from the community and tribes and no government oversight like OSHA to protect workers.
“Matt and I have joked about this before,” Berg said. “How much fun it must have been to be an engineer in that era when what you could draw your team could build.”
The upside, Berg said, is that advances in design, materials and technology have made projects like the jetty replacement project safer, more environmentally sound and more enduring.
“We’ve made advancements for good reason,” Berg said. “We’re replacing hundreds of tons of creosote impregnated wood piling with uncoated steel. The uncoated steel is going to rust and have a patina that will look not unlike the old piling, but it will not be leaching creosote into the water.”
That the new jetties resembled the old ones was a critical component in design and implementation.
Berg said that feedback from Port Townsend residents indicated they understood the importance of constructing an effective barrier that protected the marina, but that it was also important that if fit with the character of a Victorian town.
“There was a lot of concern in the community about how it looked,” Berg said. “For example, a steel combowall had been designed and in fact was permitted, but it wasn’t built because in addition to concerns about how it might operate in certain wave conditions, there was concern about how it fit into the area’s history.”
Klontz said as there was a great deal of effort to make the new jetties look like the old ones.
“It was designed to resemble the existing breakwater to some degree using modern materials,” Klontz said. “So, for instance, instead of using timber piles, we’re using steel piles, but the spacing of those piles will be similar to the spacing of the piles that you see today.”
Most of the vessels in the marina were gone last Monday to make way for the Wooden Boat Festival which began Thursday and will run through Sunday.
The marina will remain closed until work on the north jetty is completed in March 2023. The process of vessels vacating the marina for the festival and the closing it for construction will be repeated in September 2023 when replacement of the south jetty starts and which is scheduled to be completed in March 2024.
The $15 million project is being financed by a combination of Port (39 percent) and state, federal and Port of Port Townsend Industrial Development District Levy (61 percent) funding.
The contractor, Orion Marine Group, will place two barges at the entrance to the marina as staging and material stations, and work 10 hours a day and six days a week to finish the project on time.
Klontz estimated that about 827 old piles and 5,428 cubic yards of rock and debris will be removed during demolition.
Both jetties are in similarly bad shape, Klontz said, but the port decided to replace the north one, which is inside the “arm” of the south one, first.
“The south one tends to get a little more weather and a little more water action because of the prevailing winds, but it will help protect north breakwater while it’s being built,” Klontz said.
Berg said that people are welcome to attend the groundbreaking and are encouraged to watch the jetties disappear rock by rock and piling by piling, and then be reconstructed again.
“Restaurants and businesses are all going to be open,” Berg said. “For people who like to see things being built, hopefully there’ll be a pretty good show with the vibrating pile driver as part of the ambience.”
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at Paula.Hunt@soundpublishing.com
