PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Transportation is negotiating to possibly reopen part of the 22.5-acre Marine Drive graving yard site to build anchors for the Hood Canal Bridge replacement project.
During Monday’s Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce weekly luncheon meeting, project director Eric Soderquist revealed that Transportation is considering building heavy concrete anchors on the “waterward” portion of the site.
That would be the portion of the property most distant from the 2003 discovery of Klallam remains and artifacts that stalled — and eventually shut down — the onshore dry dock project last year.
The fenced-off Marine Drive site, pronounced by mounds of earth covered with plastic, has been idle since Dec. 21.
During an open house held later Monday on this summer’s planned construction-related closure of the Hood Canal Bridge, Transportation’s Olympic Region spokesman, Lloyd Brown, said negotiations on reopening part of the Port Angeles graving yard site are continuing as part of the state-owned property’s future disposition.
The proposed anchor-building site would be along the water side of the graving yard site and wouldn’t involve digging, he said.
It would allow use of a $2 million concrete batch plant built nearby by a subcontractor, Fred Hill Materials Inc., to pour the massive anchors that are 46 feet to 60 feet in diameter and as tall as 25 feet.
They are used to hold the floating bridge in place, attached with three-inch metal cables.
Construction of pontoons for the east half replacement of the floating bridge, originally planned for the Port Angeles graving yard, will be built elsewhere because they require ground excavation.
Soderquist said a decision will be made soon from among Transportation’s top three potential pontoon sites: the Mats Mats quarry near Port Ludlow in Jefferson County, sites in Seattle and Tacoma, and the Port of Everett.
Transportation is “on the cusp” of deciding on a new “preferred site” — or sites — for building the pontoons and anchors, and could decide by June, Soderquist said.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chairwoman Frances G. Charles agreed Monday that the proposed site for anchor construction on the Port Angeles graving yard site is “pretty close to the shore.”
The proposal is being negotiated among groups that include the tribe, state Department of Natural Resources, Port of Port Angeles, Port Angeles city and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, she said.
“It’s something we’re talking with them about right now. They did have a discussion with us on its potential effects,” Charles said.
“We’re still waiting to see the plans in detail.”