Peninsula Daily News
Motorists, beware.
If you’re planning to venture off the Peninsula this week, take note of disruptions in service on both the Hood Canal Bridge and the ferry between Port Townsend and Keystone.
As part of final work on the bridge, three daytime bridge closures are scheduled today, Wednesday and Thursday.
There will be no ferry service on the Port Townsend-Keystone route on Saturday and Sunday.
The Steilacoom II — the only ferry on the route — will under go a required annual inspection on those days.
Travelers can take the Edmonds-Kingston and the Mukilteo-Clinton ferries between the Peninsula and Whidbey Island.
To get to Kingston, you must cross the Hood Canal Bridge on state Highway 104.
At least 40 minutes
The bridge is scheduled to be closed to traffic:
• Today at 2:40 p.m.
• Wednesday at 9 a.m.
• Thursday at 9 a.m.
The closures are for drawspan openings that will last 40 minutes, but the delay for travelers can stretch longer than that because of backed-up traffic.
The openings allow testing of the ballast in pontoons to ensure that both the new east side and the retrofitted west side work together, state engineers say.
The tests are timed to coincide with slack tides.
No closures are scheduled for Tuesday or Friday.
No advance notice
Bridge openings for marine vessels, which are from 40 minutes to an hour, occur as needed. No advance notice is given.
Scheduled closures are listed online at www.hoodcanalbridge.com.
Text-message alerts about bridge closures can be received by signing up online at the same Web site.
To find out if the bridge is open, dial 5-1-1, or phone toll free at 800-419-9085.
Neither phone number will provide advance notice of closures.
