“Photo: Working against the backdrop of the Cascades Mountains, Puget Sound, and an incoming ferry, workers for MKB Constructors plug away at the new southern section of the Clinton ferry dock.Matt Johnson/staff photoA lack of funding will not mean the lack of a ferry dock in Clinton. It just means the dock will be a little uglier than anyone had planned.Due to a huge capital budget shortfall caused by Initiative 695, Washington State Ferries will not be able to pay for the second half of the ferry dock reconstruction project started last spring in Clinton. The contractor will complete the new, southern half of the slip, which is about five months away from being operational. But for the foreseeable future, the new portion of the dock will have to work smoothly with the old half.Kurt Grant, the ferry dock project supervisor for contractor MKB Constructors, said his crew will build a transition area between the two halves of the dock near its seaward end. In doing so, the construction workers will have to make up for a slight difference in height between the two halves.It’ll work, Grant said Thursday.When the work is completed in June, the amalgamated dock will still be bigger and better than the old one. It will be two lanes wider and will boast four ticketing booths. It will also have a larger ferry agent’s office and more indoor lounge space for walk-on passengers who want to get out of the weather. However, the dock will still have only one southern slip and one northern slip. A second southern slip was designed into the new dock plans, but it is part of the second construction phase. That phase was to have started in November with the demolition of the north half of the dock. Instead, the two halves of phase one are expected to be ready to work together in early June, according to Grant.”