PORT ANGELES — A lone picket walked in front of the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard on Tuesday.
Dale Gesellchen of Port Angeles, a journeyman carpenter, said he was concerned that his next job at the graving yard on Port Angeles’ waterfront will not happen because the “dead are ruling the living.”
Gesellchen said he was not protesting the archaeological excavation of human remains and centuries-old Klallam tribal artifacts at the site — but is hoping that the archaeological work won’t further delay construction.
“I am not here to cause a fight, this is nonconfrontational ‘warning’ — people need to be aware that if Kiewit leaves and the graving yard does not happen, we are losing $10 billion in the next 100 years,” he said.
Kiewit-General Construction Co. of Poulsbo is the contractor for the $204 million Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and graving yard project.
The graving yard — a huge, on-shore dry dock and concrete batching facility being built by Kiewit — is where new anchors and floating pontoons for the bridge will be constructed.
Doug MacDonald, head of the state Department of Transportation, said as far as he knows Kiewit-General officials have no plans to leave the project.
Calls by a Peninsula Daily News reporter to Kiewit officials were not returned Tuesday.