Four years from now, a piece of bridge three-quarters of a mile long will be floated into place on the Hood Canal.
The $205 million east half replacement of the Hood Canal Bridge in 2006 will close the bridge for six to eight weeks from April to June.
But work on the floating bridge’s opposite end will take longer — about four years.
And although widening the west half will not force outright closing of the Peninsula’s lifeline to the Puget Sound area, the construction work will slow traffic from next year to about 2007.
Plans released by the state Department of Transportation last week show that work on the western portion of the bridge comprises more than 10 percent of the total cost of the project, which until now has focused on the east half replacement.
Intermittent traffic disruptions for cars and vessels will be caused by the widening project on the Jefferson County end of the bridge.
——————
The rest of this story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
