PORT TOWNSEND — A letter from the Washington State Ferries chief assures Jefferson County leaders that an Edmonds-Port Townsend commercial ferry run during the Hood Canal Bridge closure in 2009 is being seriously considered.
The three county commissioners are lobbying Gov. Chris Gregoire and state lawmakers to provide a temporary Edmond-Port Townsend run to carry commercial trucks during the six- to eight-week May-June closure to replace the bridge’s long-deteriorating eastern half.
“[Rep. Lynn Kessler] told me she and the governor were behind the Port Townsend-Edmonds ferry route idea,” county Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow, said during a commissioners briefing session Tuesday.
Commissioners David Sullivan, D-Cape George, and Phil Johnson, D-Port Townsend, said they hoped for at least two round trips a day.
During the Hood Canal Bridge closure, U.S. Highway 101 will be the only land route to the east side of Puget Sound, and the 54-car Christine Anderson will be the only ferry operating between Port Townsend and Keystone.
North Olympic Peninsula truck lines would have to drive about 100 miles around the bridge to get to Interstate 5 freight destinations.
For the Port Townsend Paper mill, it would mean traveling almost 100 miles south before going north to Canada.
Drivers would have to travel as far south as Shelton or Olympia to access the other side of the Puget Sound.
