Dry-dock attempt cost $87M

OLYMPIA — A failed attempt to build a dry dock in Port Angeles cost $27 million more than originally calculated, and there's no guarantee a similar "misadventure" couldn't happen again, the first detailed public accounting of the project reveals.

In a more than 200-page report on the project, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) recounts and seeks to explain the ill-starred $87 million project, up from $60 million, that began in August 2003.

The department walked away from the site in December 2004 at the request of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe after inadvertently disturbing one of the largest Indian villages ever found in the Northwest and more than 335 intact skeletons.

Concrete pontoons and anchors to replace the east half of the Hood Canal Bridge now are under construction in Tacoma, though the project is three years behind schedule.

What seemed like the ideal site on the Port Angeles waterfront near Ediz Hook quickly "turned into a nightmare," said state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, presenting the report in a public meeting of the Washington State Transportation Commission in Olympia on Tuesday.

MacDonald issued the report in part to get out ahead of an audit on the project to be presented to legislators June 2. That separate audit is expected to be critical of missteps in the project, as is DOT's own report.

Mistakes included not tying the archaeological survey done at the site to the ancient beach line, where it would be most likely to detect a village or burial ground, according to the report.

DOT report


To read the report:

www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability
/hcbgravingdock

Paper copies may also be requested by calling 360-705-7075 or online by e-mail at healyl@wsdot.wa.gov

To learn more about the Hood Canal Bridge replacement project:

www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/
sr104hoodcanalbridgeeast

The department also should have noted red flags raised by earlier archaeological surveys and anthropological reports describing a large Indian village and burial ground in the area of the project. Instead, the department accepted the consultant's report without question.

"But no tool exists that can give you a guarantee you will uncover the facts you need to know," MacDonald told the commission. Indeed, a second, much more thorough examination of the site after the initial find still failed to discern the true nature of what lay just beneath the ground. That's despite the involvement of the tribe, state and federal experts and two archaeological firms.

And once a find is made, "there are no clear guidelines" on what to do about it, MacDonald added. That's cold comfort in a state confronting major future transportation projects, including construction of a new bridge across the Columbia River, the aboriginal homeland of many tribes.

Today the site in Port Angeles is in limbo, and the state and tribe have sued one another over the project. That suit is on hold while a professional mediator works to sort out the long-term fate of the property, which belongs to the state. The tribe wants it for reburial, but the city fears setting a precedent that could cloud future development of the waterfront.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com