SEATTLE — Following widespread concern from residents and businesses of the Olympic Peninsula, the Washington State Department of Transportation will no longer close the Hood Canal Bridge on weekends this summer, opting instead to perform most of the scheduled repairs at night during the workweek.
Rather than disrupt the gush of travelers who head west for outdoor recreation every summer weekend, crews will now work the nights of May 13 to May 17; May 20 to May 24; June 10 to June 14; and June 17 to June 21, a WSDOT spokesperson said Monday. The bridge will close at 11 p.m. and reopen at 4 a.m. each day, except on Saturdays when it will close at 10 p.m. and reopen at 10 a.m.
Additional night work will occur in September, but those dates have not yet been set, said MaryLou Shannon, WSDOT’s assistant region administrator for construction.
“We’ve listened to the concerns of the community that they’ve expressed about when we do this work,” Shannon said.
The work on the floating bridge, which regularly opens and closes for submarines and other maritime traffic coming and going from the body of water between the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas, will focus on the parts that guide the span shut and keep it locked in place. Tides, punishing winds and corrosive saltwater degrade the parts, necessitating the overhaul.
To make the repairs, crews will work off cranes anchored to the bridge’s side, all of which depends on calm weather that’s rare in the months beyond summer.
It was for this reason — and to avoid disrupting commuters and emergency vehicles — that WSDOT originally planned the repairs over four summer weekends, likely in late July and early August.
But that timing would have meant restricted access to the peninsula from the west at the very height of tourist season. The only detour is south, through Aberdeen and up Highway 101.
“July and August are really when many of our venues and touristic destinations get enough money in those two months to make it through the year,” Jefferson County Commissioner Greg Brotherton said.
Brotherton applauded the change of plans. “My hat is off to WSDOT for not just ticking a box, but really listening and responding to the potential impacts to local communities,” he said.
The $1.28 million project has been a long time coming. WSDOT initially planned the work for 2021, but it was delayed until 2022 by COVID-19, and then again by supply chain issues until 2023.
The Hood Canal Bridge is an engineering marvel and, at nearly a mile and a half, one of the longest floating bridges in the world. It first opened in 1961, but it had to be rebuilt after it sunk in 1979. The eastern half of the bridge was rebuilt in 2009. About 18,000 cars cross the stretch every day.
Federal law requires the bridge to open to maritime vessels entering and exiting the canal — including ships and submarines traveling to and from Naval Submarine Base Bangor in Kitsap County. The result is occasional delays to travelers as a massive hydraulic system lifts and retracts the center section of the bridge like slow-moving elevator doors.
After completing temporary repairs in 2020, crews will be making more permanent fixes to the bridge’s center lock, which acts a sort-of deadbolt to hold the two sides of the retractable span together. Workers will also be removing and replacing two enormous pyramid-shaped objects that guide the moving deck into place.
Initially, crews were going to replace the pyramid pieces and the locking device at the same time, but they’ve now broken those repairs apart. The locking mechanism will be replaced in September.
On the Olympic Peninsula, word of the bridge’s closure was initially greeted with frustration about its timing, along with a reluctant acceptance considering the importance of the bridge’s health.
“After several years of dynamic times, I feel like we are familiar with the need to adapt to changing circumstances,” said Crystie Kisler, co-founder of Finnriver cidery in Chimacum, a popular stopping point for people coming and going from hiking. “My personal attitude is, OK, we’re going to adapt.”
One major fear was the work overlapping with the THING music festival, scheduled for the last weekend in August at Fort Warden State Park in Port Townsend. The festival, launched by Seattle Theater Group just before being derailed by the pandemic, is set to be a major event with hundreds of people traveling from Seattle to attend.
Seattle Theater Group spokesperson Rachel Liuzzi said resolving concerns about bridge closures was among the organization’s “highest priorities.”
“We are delighted to hear that the Hood Canal Bridge will remain open on weekends this summer and that THING festival attendees can purchase tickets and attend a vibrant, and eclectic weekend in Port Townsend with no concern for travel delays or reroutes,” she said.
The contractor on the job is Massana Construction, which has offices in Georgia and Texas, as well as Washington.
In the event that the weather in May and June does not cooperate — as is often the case in the Pacific Northwest — WSDOT will roll the work over to the next week.
