in April 2006. Fourteen pontoons were built in four cycles at the site. Completed pontoons were floated out of the graving dock in Tacoma and transported to Seattle for outfitting at Todd Shipyards. Outfitting included adding all electrical and mechanical parts, connecting the pontoons into sections, and building the roadway on top of the pontoons. Another three pontoons, built during the west-half bridge replacement in the early 1980s, were retrofitted in Seattle. Use In planning for a prolonged closure of the bridge for the east-half replacement, the Washington State Department of Transportation conducted a five-day survey of bridge use in early June 1998 in order to assess closure impact and plan effective mitigation strategies. The survey was in three stages: A video camera count of traffic on weekdays (Tuesday and Wednesday) and a weekend (Friday through Sunday) to estimate average volume; the use of that video to record license plate numbers for vehicle registration addresses to assess which communities would be most affected; and the mailing of a questionnaire to the registered owners of those vehicles seeking information on trip origin, destination, and purpose, and choice of travel alternatives during a bridge closure. The video count produced a weekday average of 14,915 trips/day and a weekend average of 18,759 trips/day. Peak volumes reach 20,000 vehicles on summer weekends. The vehicle registration information indicated that a majority of trips were by residents of communities near the bridge. The most represented communities were, in numerical order, Port Ludlow (8%), Port Townsend (7%), Port Angeles (6%), Seattle (6%), Sequim (5%), Poulsbo (5%), Bremerton (4%), Port Hadlock (2%), and Silverdale (2%). The questionnaires revealed that a majority of trips were to and/or from communities near the bridge. On the weekend 48% of westbound trips originated on the north and central Kitsap Peninsula, with 88% of the destinations in areas near Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles. For weekday trips, nearly 55% of westbound trips originated in northern or central Kitsap County with 90% of the destinations in the Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, and Port Angeles areas. A large number of eastbound weekday morning trips appeared to be for commuting purposes, with 92% of originating in Port Ludlow, Port Townsend, Sequim, or Port Angeles, and 60% with central or northern Kitsap County as a destination, and 32% ending in the Seattle metropolitan area. The evening westbound trips seemed to mirror the morning