UPDATE: (7 p.m.) Ferry service resumes on Lopez

Ferry service resumed at about 5 p.m. today on Lopez Island, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Susan Harris-Huether said.

Ferry service resumed, although cautiously, as State Patrol bomb squad members brought in hay bales to buffer the area so they could neutralize dynamite found earlier in the day by a county Public Works crew, KIRO-TV reported.

A Public Works employee riding a backhoe was clearing brush from a ditch at the top of the ferry-landing holding lanes when he found wires coming out of a hole bored into rock. The hole is believed to contain dynamite that failed to detonate when the holding lanes were being developed in the 1980s.

The 5:15 p.m. sailing from Anacortes to Lopez was scheduled to take place.

Other ferry delays

On Jan. 1-2, there will be delays and service alterations in the San Juan Islands, WSF reported.

The 10 a.m. sailing from Anacortes will be a Friday Harbor only, not stopping at Orcas Island as stated on the printed schedule. The 5:50 p.m. sailing, which normally makes all stops, will be a direct sailing to Friday Harbor only.

WSF expects 5- to 30-minute delays in the morning and 20- to 50-minute delays in afternoons. This route, while maintaining capacity, will have slightly less than normal service because the Evergreen State travels three knots slower than the MV Sealth, which has been out of service since striking Reid Rock on Dec. 24.

To ease holiday ferry traffic, WSF is encouraging New Year’s celebrants planning on traveling to the San Juan Islands this weekend to park at the Anacortes terminal in the free parking lot and walk on the ferry to avoid long lines returning to Anacortes Jan. 2.

This route, while maintaining overall capacity, will have slightly less-than-normal service because the M/V Evergreen State travels three knots slower than the M/V Sealth.

For updated information, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries or call 511.

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