SHINE — The Port Angeles-based operator of the Victoria Express passenger ferries has landed a state Department of Transportation contract to provide water shuttle service while the Hood Canal Bridge is repaired in May and early June.
Victoria Rapid Transit Inc. will provide the two 149-seat red and white foot ferries at a cost of $7,000 per ferry a day, paid for through Transportation’s $10 million bridge-out mitigation budget during the six-week closure beginning May 1, state officials said.
The Victoria Express II and another company vessel will run between two temporary landings at South Point on the Jefferson County side and Lofall in Kitsap County.
A 1,500-vehicle temporary parking lot is being built at Fred Hill Materials’ Shine Pit, and free Jefferson Transit bus service will run passengers to and from the parking lot.
A 1,500-vehicle parking lot has already been built in Port Gamble, where riders will be shuttled to and from the Lofall dock.
The water shuttles will run every half hour between South Point and Lofall.
Owner ‘excited’
“We’re pretty excited. We’re really jazzed about providing the service,” Victoria Express owner Jack Harmon said.
“We feel we can do a good job for the DOT.”
Victoria Express provided a shuttle ferry between Bremerton and Seattle in October when the car ferry was temporarily out of service.
The ferry company was the lone bidder for the six-week bridge closure, said Becky Hixson, bridge project business manager.
Following the state’s announcement Wednesday morning, Harmon said he expects to keep the Victoria Express run between Port Angeles and Victoria during the bridge closure.
Harmon said he will pull the company’s two boats that run between Victoria and the San Juan Islands and between Bellingham and Victoria to use as Hood Canal water shuttles.
“We are still having some preliminary schedule meetings,” Harmon said of his company and DOT officials.
Water shuttle service
Hixson said $2.5 million has been budgeted for water shuttle service for the bridge project and $2.6 million has been budgeted for Jefferson Transit service, which will require 28 temporary drivers and support staff to provide free, stepped-up transportation to compensate for the loss of the bridge during construction.
Piles were driven Tuesday at South Point for a temporary dock, and work at Lofall requires the removal and replacement of pilings, which is expected to last through this week.
Fred Hill Materials’ Shine Pit parking lot has been graded, paved and surveyed, Hixson said.
Guard ropes and parking layout will be done in February and March, and lighting will be set up in April, she said.
The free water shuttle will depart the docks in Lofall and South Point every half-hour between 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. during the six-week bridge closure. The 149-passenger vessels will have the capability to transport more than 11,000 people daily.
“The reliable movement of people and goods is critical to our economy, especially in an area so dependent on the Hood Canal Bridge,” said Paula Hammond, Secretary of Transportation.
“The water shuttle service will serve a dual role during the closure. It will address a major need by providing people a quick, reliable way to access the Olympic Peninsula, and it will help reduce traffic on U.S. [Highway] 101.”
Connecting transit
Kitsap, Jefferson and Clallam transit agencies will offer connecting services, transporting travelers from the docks at Lofall and South Point to corresponding park-and-ride lots in Port Gamble and Shine Pit, as well as communities throughout the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas.
“Dovetailing the water shuttle and transit services like this saves people time and money that they would have spent driving around on U.S. 101,” Hammond said.
“The combined services provide travelers another option in getting to and from the Olympic Peninsula during the closure.”
The Victoria Express vessels will begin practice runs between water shuttle docks in late April.
The closure will be a challenging time for travelers, Hammond said. DOT is encouraging people to get ready now, reviewing their transportation options to determine the most viable option.
The $470.9 million Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and replacement project is 87 percent complete and will improve the existing east half, making it wider, safer and more reliable, state officials have said.
Truck ferry service
The state Department of Transportation Ferries Division has agreed to provide Port Townsend-to-Edmonds ferry service for commercial trucking operations during the bridge construction closure.
The service will benefit major North Olympic Peninsula commercial trucking operations such as the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill and the Nippon Paper Industries USA mill in Port Angeles, whose drivers would otherwise have to go more than 100 miles around the bridge project.
David Moseley, state assistant transportation secretary for the ferries division, said DOT has agreed to provide evening car-ferry service between Port Townsend and Edmonds during the six-week closure.
A 124-car Issaquah-class ferry would be used after it is pulled from normal service on the Kingston-Edmonds route, ferries officials said.
The service would run from Sunday through Thursday, departing Edmonds at 8:40 p.m. and departing Port Townsend at 10:40 p.m. The crossing time is about an hour and 45 minutes.
Room for six 82-foot tractor-trailers and 86 passenger vehicles will be provided beginning May 1 for the expected construction closure to replace the bridge’s eastern half. The ferry also carries about 1,200 foot passengers.
Cost for the service, taken out of the state bridge closure mitigation fund, is $137,000.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
