By Pepper Fisher
PORT TOWNSEND – The Port of Port Townsend this week received a $7 million grant to from the US Dept. of Commerce to replace the 90-year-old Point Hudson Breakwater.
The grant will be matched with $7 million in local investment, and is expected to create 24 jobs, retain 150 jobs, and generate $6 million in private investment.
Port of Port Townsend Executive Director Eron Berg says all the funding is in place, the project is already permitted, and they will soon advertise for bids to get started with demolition right after this year’s Wooden Boat Festival.
“Right after Wooden Boat Festival this year, the marina will be emptied, the contractor will mobilize up, demolish one half of this facility reconstruct it, and we’ll reopen the marina in March of 2023. And then, our intent would be to take the exact same approach, September 2024, close the marina, do the other half and complete the project.”
It sounds fairly simple on the face of it, but replacing the warn out structures won’t be without a significant disruption to local lives and businesses.
“Yeah, it’s a very busy marina. I think we see about 5,000 votes come and go each year, the Northwest Maritime Center programs, a lot of those run through the marina. In 2021, I think the whale watching boats, Puget Sound Express, ran almost 20 thousand passengers through the marina. It’s home to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. So it’s going to be highly disruptive. But of course, without the breakwater, all of that is in jeopardy. So, you know, we’re doing our best to accommodate permanent moorage tenants in particular, at the Boat Haven Marina, then we’ll get back to normal once the breakwaters are built.”
A bit of good news for the project is the fact that engineers did not have to go back to the drawing board and redesign the breakwater. Except to replace the wood pilings with steel, and build it a little taller to account for rising seas due to climate change, the original design by the Army Corps of Engineers is still the best. Berg says, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
“That’s interesting, isn’t it? Other than degradation with the rocks, or the breaking down over the almost hundred years, and the creosote pilings wearing out, that’s exactly what we’re doing. And its intended, by the way. Both to provide the functionality of that design, but it’s also intended to maintain the historic character of Point Hudson. To be consistent with that original station facility built in the 30s.”
The project is funded by a supplement to the Disaster Relief Act of 2019, which provided $600 million for disaster relief and recovery for areas affected by natural disasters, and that includes recent storms that have battered the breakwater.
(Port of Port Townsend photos)