About 50 people were present for Thursday’s public hearing and meeting for the SR 520 Pontoon Project at Aberdeen High School hosted by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Participants were invited to submit written or verbal testimony at the night’s meeting. The meeting was split into two events. Downstairs Transportation staff stood by and took questions in relation to information displayed on easels and upstairs a large meeting room was set up for those interested in providing the verbal testimony. Julie Meredith, the 520 Project Director for the Department began the evening by presenting project information and later led the public hearing portion of night’s agenda. Meredith compared the somewhat sparse turnout for the night’s public hearing with the much larger turnout of over 125 folks that attended the Department’s “employment forum” held that morning at Grays Harbor College. She pointed to the Harbor’s high unemployment rate being a good indicator of why this project has received so much strong community support.
Many attendees filled out written comments forms that evening but only three individuals actually testified with two of those thanking the state Department of Transportation for bringing more jobs to the Harbor. The only concern came from a man concerned about the Department’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and sidewalk accessibility issues.
The purpose of this project is to construct pontoons in order to restore the SR 520 floating bridge in the event of a catastrophic failure or they will be used for the replacement of the SR 520 Bridge, which is scheduled to open to traffic in 2014. The two major elements of the Department’s proposal include locating a site for the pontoon construction facility and casting basin, and locating a nearby moorage area for the completed pontoons. The Aberdeen Log Yard has been named as the preferred site for the casting basin but a site in Hoquiam is also still moving through the environmental permit process as a backup. Environmental review of both Grays Harbor sites will be included in a final EIS to be released later this year.
Construction of the casting facility could begin as soon as the end of 2010 once environmental review is complete and permits are obtained. WSDOT hired the design-build team of Kiewit-General for $367.3 million to build the casting facility and pontoons. Ron Morford, with Kiewit General, told the employment forum audience from earlier in the day that he hopes to start clearing the site in early- to mid-December and plans to hire up to 150 people soon after with most of the those workers will come from the local unions.
Comments on the project are due by July 12, 2010 and can be e-mailed to sr520pontoons_deis@wsdot.wa.gov or addressed to Margaret Kucharski, WSDOT Environmental Lead, 600 Stewart St., Suite 520, Seattle, WA 98101. Project documents can be viewed online at www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr520/pontoons/deis or call the project office at 206-770-3500 or 1-888-520 NEWS (6397) to request a free executive summary and CD or to purchase a printed copy of the document.
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