PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend officials meet with Port Townsend Paper Corp. representatives this afternoon to fine-tune a proposal that could lead to a Hood Canal Bridge graving yard in Port Townsend.
“I don’t think the mill will have too much to change,” Port Executive Director Larry Crockett said of the graving yard proposal he plans to hand-deliver Friday to state Department of Transportation officials in Olympia.
The graving yard site, or sites, is where replacement components for the Hood Canal Bridge’s crumbling eastern half would be constructed.
The new graving yard complex would replace a partially completed project in Port Angeles that was abandoned last month because Native American remains and artifacts continued to be found on the waterfront property.
In Port Townsend, an aerial map of the mill’s proposed graving yard site will be finalized along with the mill officials’ proposal to state transportation representatives, said Crockett.
Public invited
Herb Beck, Port of Port Townsend commission president, on Wednesday called for a news conference at 8:30 a.m. Friday to officially send off Port and mill representatives to Olympia to deliver the proposal compiled as part of a public-private partnership.
The public is invited to the news conference, which will take place at the Port’s administrative offices, 333 Benedict St.
“I feel that we owe the people that much, to show them that we are on our way,” Beck said Wednesday night.
“I really like this public partnership and I have had a lot of positive input on it.”
Beck, who remembers when a powerful storm sank the floating bridge in 1979, fears that such a thing could happen again if the bridge is not repaired as soon as possible.
“If you lose that bridge you lose your freedom,” Beck said, remembering the long trip around Hood Canal from Jefferson County to Kitsap County.
Crockett said the Friday send-off might be delayed until Monday should the Port or mill run into more substantive changes or editing of the proposal.
Monday is the state Department of Transportation’s deadline for proposals from port agencies around the Puget Sound/North Olympic Peninsula region.
