One-year countdown to Hood Canal Bridge closure starts … now

The one-year countdown to the May-June 2009 closure of the Hood Canal Bridge starts today.
Are you ready? Have you considered how the bridge closure will affect you, how you’ll get where you need to go, or how long it will take to get there? If not, there’s still time: You have 8,760 hours or 525,600 minutes or 31.5 million seconds.
The six-week closure will affect thousands of residents and visitors in the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, and as a result, WSDOT’s Hood Canal Bridge Project Team will be using these precious moments ramping up efforts to get the public ready for the construction project.
Through October, the team will staff information booths at events throughout the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas to inform residents about the project’s construction progress and closure mitigation plan. The events will allow WSDOT to reach an even broader audience as it discusses everything from pontoon work to a water shuttle across Hood Canal, transit additions, medical bus services and ridesharing opportunities.
“This is a great opportunity to talk with the people this project serves,” said Theresa Gren, Hood Canal Bridge Project Communications Manager. “Attending these events will allow residents to chat one-on-one with project representatives. We’re very excited about that.”
Team members, who will attend 11 community events in Jefferson, Clallam, Mason and Kitsap counties, will kick off the closure outreach effort May 16-18 at Viking Fest in Poulsbo and finish Oct. 11-12 at the Dungeness Crab Festival in Port Angeles.
The Hood Canal Bridge retrofit and replacement project will improve the existing structure, making it wider, safer and more reliable. The bridge will close for six weeks during May-June 2009 to allow WSDOT and contractors from Kiewit-General to remove and replace its eastern half. For more information, visit www.HoodCanalBridge.com.