PORT ANGELES — What’s to be done with the former Hood Canal Bridge graving yard probably won’t be decided until August.
Frances Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, said tribal leaders will be preoccupied with hosting the Tribal Canoe Journey. They likely won’t have time to negotiate with the state Department of Transportation.
The state Transportation Department owns 22.5 acres on the Port Angeles waterfront where it hoped to build giant concrete anchors, pontoons and bridge decks to replace the crumbling east end of the floating span.
The site also is where archaeologists uncovered 335 intact burials, thousands of skeletal fragments and more than 10,000 artifacts, some of which date to 700 B.C.
Their discovery of the ancestral village of Tse-whit-zen brought a halt to the bridge-replacement project — after the state had spent $58.8 million there — on Dec. 21, 2004.
Assessments optimistic
Earlier statements by Charles, Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald and negotiator Tim Thompson of Tacoma that said an answer might come this week proved too optimistic. All three had expressed hope that the issue might be settled before the canoe journey.
Thompson, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, said that negotiations had taken longer than he’d anticipated.
“Further details have got to be developed,” he said Wednesday.
“I’m still optimistic that we will be able to solve them.”
The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will host this year’s celebration of Native American sea culture Aug. 1-6. The events is expected to draw up to 102 canoes and as many as 8,000 members of Northwest tribes and Canadian First Nations.