Column from July 6, 2001 – Peninsula Daily News

Déjà vu on Hood Canal closure plan

By Martha M. Ireland

Stuffed my mailbox last week were three copies of the WSDOT—Washington State Department of Transportation—information piece and survey, “Hood Canal Bridge, Rebuilding the Eastern Half.”

This was shortly after I read news reports that the state is seeking comments on the shutdown of the bridge while it’s being repaired.

I felt like I was in a time warp.

In 1998-99, the Peninsula Regional Transportation Planning Organization’s Hood Canal Bridge Replacement Stakeholders Committee, along with WSDOT staff and consultants, met repeatedly.

As a Clallam County commissioner, I was on that committee.

Using surveys and meetings, we developed a plan to mitigate the transportation impacts when the bridge closes for eight weeks (now scheduled for May and June of 2006; the closure originally was planned for 2004).

The eastern half of the Hood Canal Bridge will be structurally unsafe after 2007, so replacement is unavoidable. To minimize downtime, the replacement structure will be built elsewhere, then the old section will be pulled out and the new floated into place.

December 10, 1999, Stakeholders Committee Chairman Gary Demich thanked us for completing the mitigation plan.

Demich retired from the state agency, passing the replacement project to a new group of staff and consultants.

Why duplicate the work done earlier, I asked Project Manager John Callahan this week.

“We’re not really exactly duplicating it at all,” he replied.

But the more he talked, the more it became clear that it’s CYOB (Cover Your Own Butt) time at WSDOT.

The state will spend $10 million to ease inconveniences caused by the temporary shut-down of the bridge. Callahan’s job is to see that the money is spent wisely—or at least defensibly.

Not only is the survey being repeated—at a cost of $70,000—but the new input will likely go back to the regional transportation committee this fall “to get validation of the plan,” Callahan says.

When the inevitable complaints arise about the bridge being down, WSDOT will be able to defend its mitigation plan as having been based on extensive public input.

The most expensive mitigations involve ferries. Callahan spent the past five years with the agency’s ferry division.

Having ferries standing by with no riders is not Callahan’s biggest concern.

“My biggest nightmare is having a whole lot of people begging for a ferry and I don’t have any,” he says.

Due to prohibitive costs, a vehicle ferry across Hood Canal is not in the mix, but a no-charge foot ferry is.

Another ferry option is adding a boat or two to the Port Townsend run, possibly on a tri-cornered route connecting with both Kingston and Edmonds.

Callahan hopes his survey will reveal exactly what you will be doing five years from now, vis-à-vis the bridge.

Not much consideration is given to the possibility that responsible citizens, given ample advance warning, will individually adjust our schedules to avoid needing to cross Hood Canal during the brief time that the bridge will be closed.

For example, when I was on the stakeholders committee, my son lived in Port Ludlow and worked in Bremerton. The looming bridge closure was a small factor in his accepting a position in Sequim and moving to Port Angeles.

If you regularly use the Hood Canal Bridge, but didn’t receive a survey form, call Callahan at 360-731-1300, or click on www.wsdot.wa.gov.

Or call me. I’ve got a couple extras. I’m sure WSDOT will keep spending money until it collects enough input to cover its butt.

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