COUPEVILLE — If the lone bid to build a new 50-car ferry based on the Steilacoom II for the Port Townsend-Keystone route is rejected, it could again lead to a Port Townsend-Keystone route without car-ferry service, ferries officials said Thursday afternoon.
Todd Pacific Shipyards, the lone bidder on the project, said it would cost nearly $26 million to build the ferry.
The state Department of Transportation has estimated it would cost nearly $17 million.
The bid, opened in Seattle on Thursday, was $9 million over the state’s estimate.
“We will review the bid and determine if we will throw it out,” David Moseley, new state deputy transportation secretary for the ferries division, told the Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Partnership group meeting Fort Casey near the Keystone ferry landing on Whidbey Island.
Moseley said that if the project to build a ferry modeled on the Steilacoom II was dropped, “The result would be, let’s just proceed with the Island Home.“
The state Legislature has budgeted $100 million for three new ferries — one modeled on the Steilacoom II, which was to be built immediately and begin service in May 2009, and two based on the 64-car Island Home ferries used on the East Coast, to be built in 2010.
But if the state dropped the idea of building a Steilacoom II model ferry and instead began pursuing a Island Home model now, Moseley figures there would still be a five-month between the end of Steilacoom II service and the beginning of operation of the first Island Home model.
“There would be a gap of five months with no service, no boat. Would that be acceptable?” Moseley asked the partnership group.
Many shook their heads no.
The situation would lead to extending the 14-month lease on the Steilacoom II, which started in January, from Pierce County.
Moseley said he was uncertain what the next step will be.
“Right now, I’m not sure what to do, but the end step is that there are going to be new boats for Port Townsend and Keystone,” he said.
Moseley figures that he will know within two weeks how to proceed with the bid on the ferry project.
