HOOD CANAL — Budget overruns on Washington State Department of Transportation ongoing structural improvements to the Hood Canal Bridge just aren’t floating with 23rd District Representative Bev Woods (R-Kingston).

And as the ranking Republican on the House Trans-portation Committee, she’s looking to land some of the officials responsible in hot water.

“They were over budget a year ago,” Woods said of WSDOT, citing the need for a performance audit back then.

The audit wrapped up June 30, she added, noting that findings indicated that the already delayed project had spilled over its budget by $195 million. The budget problems arose when a portion of the project, in which graving docks were being dug in Port Angeles to accommodate the construction of new pontoons for the bridge, unexpectedly unearthed a burial site for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s ancient village, Tse-whit-zen in August 2003. Dock and pontoon work was relocated to Tacoma.

On the other hand, WSDOT was granted a budget increase from approximately $275 million to $470 million from the state Legislature in 2005 said Transportation Secretary Doug McDonald, which allowed the move, and the project to proceed.

Woods, however, was unsatisfied with the way the whole project has been handled.

“The governor needs to initiate disciplinary action regarding those involved in the dock at Port Angeles,” Woods said. “They didn’t conduct a cost/benefit analysis, they did not have proper documentation for changes that were made after they found the graveyard. After the discoveries, they should have done another cost analysis. The audit shows that critical thinking did not happen.”

WSDOT Olympic Regional Administrator Randy Hain agreed with Woods that the agency could have handled things differently.

“I suppose we could have done a more in-depth investigation at the beginning of the job that potentially would have showed the site,” said Hain, noting the tests and analyses run were according to the codes at the time. In the future, he said, WSDOT will probably use much higher testing standards.

Neither McDonald nor Hain chose to comment on Woods’ call for disciplinary action.

“I think the project overran its budget without having gone through all the steps,” said Dist. 23 Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo). “It went over budget and was not done in a really great manner. (WSDOT) needs to work at how they do projects.”

Appleton added, however, that she felt it was not their place to call for action against the project’s organizers. She said it’s the governor’s responsibility to handle such mistakes.

“I do feel she’ll take some action,” Appleton said of Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Woods followed her push for action with a motion to discipline members of the projects crew, but she was the only one on the audit board who voted for it.

“It’s completely in line and completely necessary,” she said. “We are facing mismanagement and lack of proper documentation in this project.”

Woods said the audit took six months longer than necessary to complete because WSDOT was “dragging its heels.”

“I still have questions, like who was calling which shots when, and why the state was determined to build its own graving dock,” Woods stated in a June 30 press release. “But it’s clear from this audit that some of the basic tools of project management, like documentation and cost-benefit analyses, were ignored at critical times, and that’s inexcusable.”