The Hood Canal Bridge will close for two 78-hour periods this summer because of construction to renovate the floating span, but when those closures will occur is still to be determined.
Right now, it appears they will be over a couple of weekends.
Tourism and business groups officials from Clallam and Jefferson counties will meet next week to see if they can agree on dates that will have the least affect on summer visitors.
If they find consensus at the Feb. 3 meeting of the Olympic Peninsula Joint Marketing Committee, it still will be only a recommendation, noted Lloyd Brown, regional spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, or DOT.
“The contractor will get to pick whichever weekends he chooses,” Brown said.
“There’s quite a bit of work that has to go on, on the contractor’s part, before we can tell what a specific date is.”
Sooner than later
People planning events for the summer need those dates sooner rather than later, said Tim Caldwell, general manager of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce.
“We need to help DOT define the two weekends as soon as possible and schedule those, so we can market accordingly,” he said.
The closures are needed to complete what DOT calls “approach span” work.
Brown said the procedure used for this part of the construction significantly reduces the amount of time the bridge needs to be closed.
“The construction process that we’re using, which is building the new roadway next to the existing roadway, takes about a year of closures off the construction time,” he said.
During the three-day closures, the old roadway will be put on rollers and removed, and the new road installed.
That work must take place on a weekend, according to the DOT, since that would be less disruptive to commuters and commercial traffic.
Something every weekend
The challenge for event planners and tourism officials, however, is that during the summer there’s a large festival or event somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula almost every weekend.