Hoquiam favored for pontoon job

Grays Harbor is emerging as the front-runner to host the construction of the pontoons for a new Highway 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington, and hundreds of jobs that would come with the deal.

The Port of Grays Harbor is offering land to serve as a "graving dock" to build 44 pontoons — each one 75 feet by 360 feet — near the confluence of the Hoquiam and Chehalis rivers at Hoquiam, said Gary Nelson, the port's executive director. The 40-acre site was created by a dike project about 40 years ago but has never been used.

The huge segments would need to be shipped north along the Pacific coastline, then through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Puget Sound and then through the Ballard Locks to Lake Washington.

In a letter to top lawmakers Wednesday, the state Department of Transportation said it chose the Grays Harbor site to list in a future environmental-impact statement, giving it a big advantage.

The pontoons would be too large to be built at existing construction sites in the state, including the Tacoma site where the pontoons for the Hood Canal floating bridge are being built. But the DOT still might redesign the 520 bridge project so that an existing facility might be usable, said David Dye, the agency's urban-corridors administrator. In the end, the final choice would be made by the bridge contractor, he said.

If it comes to Hoquiam, the project could create as many as 300 jobs to construct the facility, then 125 to 150 jobs to fabricate the pontoons, Nelson said.

Grays Harbor County has suffered economically for years from the downturn in the timber industry. The unemployment rate, at 7.2 percent last month, ranks eighth of 39 counties in the state and far above the statewide average of 5 percent. But unemployed millwrights, electricians and carpenters all have the skills needed to build the pontoons, Nelson said.

That solid community support also would give Grays Harbor an advantage over other locations, and the port is used to handling barges of similar size, he said.

Other sites in Pasco, Vancouver, Wash., and Kenmore all got a look, said state Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, the House majority leader. The first two would require barging in the Columbia River. And Kenmore residents probably wouldn't support the size and noise of such a site, she said.

And because the Hoquiam site would be built on fill, there's no risk of the debacle that happened in Port Angeles when the Hood Canal pontoon project disturbed an ancient Native village and burial area. The state was forced to move the project at a loss of $58 million.

In this year's transportation budget, legislative leaders are instructing DOT to prepare quickly for pontoon construction, even though there is no funding plan yet to build an entire six-lane, $4.4 billion bridge.

And conflicts continue over building a huge interchange near the Washington Park Arboretum.

The existing four-lane bridge, built in 1963, is cracked and worn, and officials warn it could be wrecked by an earthquake or severe windstorm.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com