Editor,

During times of war, bridges have huge significance, both for securing them to ensure logistical support and to eliminate them to disrupt the enemy’s logistics.

That tells us how important bridges are to the transportation infrastructure.

In the wake of the Interstate 5 bridge collapse, I thought about the two most critical links to Island County residents: Deception Pass bridges and the State Highway 532 bridge to Camano Island. What would happen if these bridges were closed for a lengthy time due to structural failure, failure due to natural disasters such as earthquakes or terrorist activities?

Everybody knows the stream of traffic that comes and goes over these two entry points to Whidbey and Camano islands.

I queried the Washington State Office of Emergency Preparedness website and came across the document: Island County, Transportation Recovery Annex, dated June 2014. I imagined that I would find information on how the state Department of Transportation would add a ferry terminal on the north end of the island to move traffic to the Anacortes ferry terminal.

How wrong could I be? The only mid-range solution was that “private operators” could provide passenger-only service.

In fact, regarding the Washington State Ferry system adding “Ferry Service New,” the box labeled “Not Feasible” was checked. Only adding ferries to Coupeville or Mukilteo ferries is thought to be an option.

The solution for a lengthy bridge closure at Deception Pass is to run all vehicle traffic through the Coupeville or Mukilteo ferries. All freight would be routed through Mukilteo. Naval Air Station Whidbey Island would be where fuel is thought to be brought on.

Let’s think about this a second — the Coupeville ferry can’t be expanded much because only specific types of boats can go in and out of those locations. That leaves 90 percent of the traffic going over Deception Pass bridges to be rerouted to Mukilteo.

This translates to several-hour waits to get on and off the island. The Mukilteo ferry already runs every half hour. It will be next to impossible to add many more runs to the schedule.

For folks who work off the north end of the island, or who commute to NAS Whidbey Island from off island, or go to medical appointments off the north end, the travel time will expand from a half-hour commute to a several-hour commute — if it is at all possible.

It gets worse for folks living on Camano Island — something to do with flying in supplies to a private airstrip and no real solution for moving vehicle traffic on and off the island.

There is a saying, “Don’t cross the bridge before you get to it.”

That is exactly the plan the state has adopted for emergency preparedness in the event of long term bridge closures to Whidbey and Camano islands.

I would think the Navy would consider the existing plan as a major security issue if they were not able to get Navy personnel or contract staff to the base who live off the island and use this as an access point.

The state needs to go back to the drawing board on this one and figure an alternate plan to move vehicle traffic off the north end of Whidbey Island and on and off Camano Island.

Thomas Kosloske

Oak Harbor