PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles officials say they have been working weekly and sometimes daily with state Department of Transportation officials on a waterfront site for a Hood Canal Bridge “graving yard.”

“We’re not just sitting passively and waiting for them to call us,” said Port Executive Director Clyde Boddy.

Boddy said DOT officials are expected to meet with Port officials by the end of this month.

“We’ve actually talked to (DOT) people (last week), and I feel we’ve been very proactive with it,” Boddy said. “We even sent them a draft lease.”

State officials value the graving yard project at up to $255 million, a facility that would produce components for the replacement of the eastern half of the Hood Canal floating bridge in 2006.

A graving yard to build pontoons traditionally includes a cement plant and huge, on-shore dry docks called “graving docks” dug deep into the ground that can be flooded once the pontoons are completed.

If built in Port Angeles, the pontoons could be floated into the harbor and towed to Hood Canal.

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