SHINE — Part of the old eastern half of the Hood Canal Bridge will take on a newly refurbished life on Vancouver Island, possibly as a pier, marina breakwater or other marine use.
A Victoria-based company, Marker Development Inc., which is planning the Seaport Waterfront Development on the shores of Sidney, British Columbia, near Victoria, has purchased the three-quarters of a mile of the bridge, which the state will begin to remove and tow away on Friday, state officials said Wednesday.
The bridge closes at 12:01 a.m. Friday to replace the eastern half of the bridge, which Department of Transportation officials said could take up to six weeks.
The east-side replacement, and the west-side retrofit project expected to be completed in 2010, are expected to cost nearly $500 million.
$750,000 purchase
Marker bought the pontoons for about $750,000 from previous different owners around the Northwest, who bought them from the state for much less in 2002 and 2003.
Marker will tow the floating bridge components north across Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island.
There, they will be tied up at the industrial site of Western Stevedoring, said Mike Comquist, Marker Development vice president for business development.
“They will take off the columns and roadway and refurbish just the floating structures,” Comquist explained.
“The road structures with columns are beyond their serviceable life, but the pontoons themselves are in good condition. They’re in terrific shape.”
No permits have been approved for the proposed Sidney waterfront project, Comquist said. He was reluctant to say which of the pontoons could be used there.
“They can be used as a breakwater, and they can be used for public piers, and they can be used for buildings,” he said.
Foss Maritime, working for DOT, will tow the floating bridge links to a “hand-off point” away from the bridge, where tugs for Marker Development will take them over for the tow northward, according to Comquist.
Comquist said the company plans to begin towing the pieces north after the state begins to take them out Friday, beginning with the east-half center drawspan.
Scott Ireland, Hood Canal Bridge project construction manager, said Wednesday that the old east-half floating parts would be removed in a “controlled unjoining process” that is highly choreographed to work smoothly.
“They will be taking portions of the bridge to tow to Sydney, Canada,” he told regional media journalists during a water shuttle tour of the bridge work aboard Port Angeles-based Victoria Express.
Sold at auction
Delori Soukup, property and acquisitions specialist with the DOT, said the old bridge was sold at auction in sections to Susan Rubello representing Rubello Pacific Inc., for $100 in February 2003; Peter Kelly, owner of Fishing Vessel Northwind Inc. for two separate sections at $5,000 each in September 2003; and Lee Sebring, owner of Sebring Marine Services Inc. in exchange for $2,000 and work for the state.
They later sold the bridge components to Brent Rogers, Marker Development owner, over the past five years, Soukup said.
They all sold them to Marker.
“They’re taking everything but the trusses,” said Becky Hixson, bridge project communications manager. “They’re taking all the four pieces that we move out.”
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
