PORT TOWNSEND — Just a day after the state abandoned the Port Angeles graving yard project, the Port of Port Townsend said it is considering a smaller Hood Canal Bridge graving yard on Port -owned property.
The idea goes before Port commissioners next Wednesday.
Business leaders, who have expressed early interest, are also expected to weigh in on the prospect.
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett and Port Commissioner Bob Sokol agreed Wednesday that the Port and the state should consider at least seven acres of Port industrial waterfront south of the Port Townsend Boat Haven marina.
The onshore, concrete-lined dry dock would be used to build components for the Hood Canal Bridge eastern half, only at a more gradual pace than pontoons and anchors would have been manufactured on 22.5 acres of Port Angeles waterfront.
“I think it’s an intriguing idea,” Sokol said Wednesday.
“It would keep the project on the Peninsula and keep it close to Hood Canal Bridge,” he said, noting that jobs would also remain in the region.
The state announced its pullout of the Port Angeles project on Tuesday because of the discovery of Klallam remains and artifacts of the former village of Tse-whit-zen dating back 17 centuries.
The Port of Port Townsend site under consideration, Crockett said, is Port-owned shoreland once considered by Santa Maria Steel LLC of Raymond as a shipbuilding yard.
“The commissioners have told me they would like to discuss the idea at our meeting next week,” said Crockett, adding that he hoped business and community support would be wide-ranging.
“If people were to leave their selfish interests at the door and look at the big picture, maybe could get more jobs here,” Crockett said.
The Port commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Port administrative office, 333 Benedict St., Port Townsend, to discuss the prospect of pitching the site to the state Department of Transportation.
Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald said Wednesday that his department was contacting ports in the region in search of alternate graving yard sites.
“We are sending out to every Port around the region a request to send us their ideas,” MacDonald said.
Asked if a smaller site such as Port Townsend’s could work for a graving yard, MacDonald said: “Maybe.”
