PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles has offered its 18-acre waterfront property purchased last spring from Nippon Paper Industries USA Co. to the state Department of Transportation for at least part of its graving yard project.
Port Executive Director Bob McChesney said the property was offered in response to Transportation’s request for alternative sites for an onshore dry dock to build components for the Hood Canal Bridge.
The site — next door to the 22.5 acres of state property on which the partially completed graving yard project was shut down last month — consists of 15 paved acres that could be used to build concrete anchors for the floating bridge, Port officials said.
The other three acres are being leased as a staging area to graving yard project contractor Kiewit-General Construction Co. of Poulsbo.
The graving yard project was officially scuttled Dec. 21 after the discovery of hundreds of burials and thousands of artifacts from the 1,700-year-old Klallam village of Tse-whit-zen.
The Port’s proposal — one of 18 from around the North Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound for a new graving yard site — is a short distance from where archaeologists found the remains and artifacts.
Lower Elwha Klallam Chairwoman Frances Charles couldn’t be reached Tuesday for comment about the Port’s proposal.
Above-ground work only
McChesney emphasized the site isn’t being offered for any digging or excavation.
The Port’s proposal, he said, is to build the anchors on the paved surface and transport them to the water, he said.
