PORT TOWNSEND – For truck drivers such as Jason Turner and Dean Youngquist, the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry run means avoiding the traffic turmoil of Interstate 5.
“Anything’s better than the I-5 corridor through Everett at 5 p.m., or 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. or 4 p.m.,” said Turner on Wednesday.
Turner was driving a load of kraft paper made at Port Townsend Paper Corporation’s mill to the company’s Richmond, British Columbia, box plant.
He trucks goods routinely across Admiralty Inlet, as does Youngquist.
Turner and Youngquist, a driver for Tri-County Truss in Burlington, were the first two truckers in line to board the MV Klickitat after it returned to service Wednesday.
The ferry had been emergency dry-docked for two days in Seattle for repair of a cracked hull.
The 2:15 p.m. run was the first after the 75-vehicle 1927 Steel Electric vessel had been repaired overnight Tuesday at Todd Pacific Shipyard and floated back to the Port Townsend terminal Wednesday morning.
Fixed was a crack 6 inches long with a 3-inch break extending up the bulkhead.
Washington State Ferries officials said hull plating measuring 18 inches by 9 inches was replaced at a cost of $50,000.
