PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Transportation is willing to meet with city officials about the future of the agency’s graving yard project on Marine Drive.
That’s the message Transportation’s Olympic regional administrator, Randy Hain, gave to the City Council, which met in special session Thursday afternoon.
Hain addressed the council by telephone from his Olympia office.
It was in Olympia one day before that the state Transportation Commission discussed the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s written request to halt all excavation at the graving yard site.
Four of seven commissioners said they are leaning toward complying with the tribe’s request and building components for the Hood Canal Bridge elsewhere.
Acting City Manager Bill Bloor said he would contact Hain about setting up a meeting to discuss the issue with the City Council.
Mayor Richard Headrick said he expected the meeting would be the first of many on the subject and not to expect a resolution.
Videotape viewed
The council on Thursday watched a tape of Wednesday’s Transportation Commission meeting where Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald said without the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe’s assent, he doesn’t think the project can continue at the site.
Less than a week earlier, Gov. Gary Locke said the same.
Everything points to the likelihood of abandoning the site, MacDonald told the commission.
How to structure the Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and replacement contract to protect the public and finish the project is a bigger issue than relocating the graving yard, he said.
