Officials send off three remaining pontoons

State and local officials on Monday bid adieu to the last three of Aberdeen’s SR 520 pontoons and the four-year-long project that employed hundreds of Harborites and reportedly brought millions in revenue to the area.

The SR 520 floating bridge, which the state Department of Transportation is installing across Lake Washington between Bellevue and Seattle, first began construction in 2011 to replace much of the existing aging bridge. Of the 77 pontoons, 33 — some about the size of a football field — were built at the facility near the Port of Grays Harbor.

The remaining 44, mostly smaller in size, were constructed in Tacoma. The pontoons are scheduled to take their place on Lake Washington in April 2016.

Speakers at an event Monday to observe the conclusion of the project included Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson, program administrator Julie Meredith and Phil Wallace, area manager for Kiewit General, the contractor for the Aberdeen pontoons.

During his speech, Wallace said the work on the Harbor brought $10 million to the area in the form of revenue to restaurants, hotels and retailers like Home Depot and local industrial supplier L.G. Isaacson, as well as $615,000 to the Port of Grays Harbor and $1.4 million to Grays Harbor PUD. In addition to the $10 million, Wallace said the city of Aberdeen has received $3.2 million from the project.

“We have had an impact to the community, and we’re very happy to have done that,” Wallace said. “We’re actually going to be very sad to go. This has been a great job for us.”

Wallace added that 34 percent of the staff — 334 workers — on the project were people living within a 50-mile radius of the project site. Many of the people hired and trained, he added, will be employed with the company long-term. The contractor also partnered with Grays Harbor College to provide scholarships for students in the field, many of whom went on to work on the project after graduation.

Simpson also took the podium to thank the group for its work on the Harbor, and called Wallace’s figures “astounding.”

“I knew they had spent a lot of money in our community, but, boy, that’s a lot,” he said.

Following the presentation, the group of guests, which included Quinault Indian Nation Tribal President Fawn Sharp and a representative from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s office, stood atop the basin gate as workers let water into the casting basin. Water from the Harbor would fill the basin for the next seven hours, Wallace said, allowing enough water to float the 11,000-ton pontoon out with the tide early Tuesday morning.

With the work in Aberdeen now finished, clean-up on the site has begun as workers remove cranes and other equipment, Meredith said. The property, she added, will be appraised either late this summer or early fall.

She added that the department’s already garnered some interest, namely from the Port of Grays Harbor. Two private companies have also shown interest, she said.

After appraisal, the site will be sold at auction.

Simpson added that city officials would like to see the site used productively.

“Our hopes and our dreams are that they do not turn it into a parking lot, that they use it to its capacity, which would be for building boats,” he said, adding that doing so would allow for more local jobs. “We’ve got some great talent down here.”