SEATTLE — Gov. Chris Gregoire, Washington State Ferries leaders and Todd Shipyard officials on Thursday gathered at Todd’s Harbor Island yard to celebrate the work done so far on a new $65.5 million, 64-car ferry expected to be ready for the Port Townsend-Keystone route late next summer.
“We’re ahead of schedule and on budget,” an upbeat Gregoire told about 100 union, news media and state representatives before touring the new shell, a massive steel structure that will fortify the hull of the 274-foot ferry, the first of its class and the state’s first new ferry since 1999.
“We’re dispelling the myth that Washington state can’t build ferries,” she said.
“It has been very difficult for our communities that are ferry-dependent to get by,” said Gregoire, who talked to downtown Port Townsend retailers about their difficulties two years ago, right after State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond pulled the then-80-year-old Steel Electric ferries from service in November 2007 because their hulls were pitted and corroded.
“I’m proud of this,” Gregoire said, “and the progress that’s been made.”
The state has since sold the Steel Electric ferries for scrap in Mexico.
Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval was among those who milled around the new ferry shell that skilled laborers have been welding together piece by steel piece.
Perhaps by August
The ferry is scheduled to be completed by June 30 for sea trials next summer, and could be serving the Port Townsend-Keystone route by next August.
Todd Chief Executive Officer Steve Welch voiced confidence that the ferry would be completed on time.
“We know you want the vessel in 18 month . . . We’re going to build the vessel in the shortest time possible so hang onto your hats,” Welch said.
The Todd executive said that building the first vessel of its class was a difficult and complicated challenge.
Welch has said that the first vessel would serve as a model for two future 64-car ferries, one of which will join the first ferry on the Port Townsend-Keystone route in 2012.
He stressed that the ferry has undergone so much redesign and re-engineering to meet state specifications that it is no longer modeled after the Island Home, a Massachusetts ferry that state officials originally looked at to suit the Port Townsend-Keystone route.
David Moseley, deputy transportation secretary for the ferry system, said Todd “has been up to that task” of completing the ferry on time, and he fully expects the ferry will be delivered in the 18-month period Gov. Gregoire required in the contract to fast-track the project.
Bids for second ferry
Moseley said bids on the second 64-car ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone route would be opened Oct. 8 and a contract would be awarded soon thereafter.
Gregoire said the state is aware that the new ferries will not be enough.
Nine ferries in the state’s fleet, the largest in the world, are between 40 and 60 years old, Gregoire said, and they too will have to be replaced.
Len York, chief executive officer of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders based in Freeland on Whidbey Island, said his company’s work in the ferry project was about 60 percent completed with aluminum pilot houses built, except for the finish work on the interior and exterior.
Nichols Brothers Boat Builders is building the superstructure that will include the passenger cabin above the deck.
At the same time, Todd workers in their building berth at Harbor Island in Seattle are fabricating the ferry’s steel hull with bottom units and the box keel units.
Everett Shipyard is building the vessel’s mezzanine section and curtain plates, the sides of the vessel.
Jesse Engineering in Tacoma is building bow parts.
Combined, the ship-building companies are racing to meet the state contract deadline.
Todd has also begun work on the ferry’s piping system.
Such “modularized construction” is the way ship construction is done today, ferry building company representatives have said.
Port Townsend has had one-ferry service since the first of 2008. The state leased the 50-car Steilacoom II from Pierce County.
Work on the new ferry began in May after it was designed to ply the often-rough waters of Admiralty Inlet.
Fast track
The ship builders have been allotted about 12 months to complete the job under Gregoire’s decision to build the new ferry on a fast track, seeing the economic impact one small boat has had on Port Townsend merchants.
The project has employed 360 skilled laborers, Welch said.
About 50 workers have helped construct Nichols portion of the project.
The deck panels are being built at Everett Shipyard, and the superstructure will be erected above those panels.
Todd’s lone bid on the 64-car vessel proposal in December 2008 came in $40 million over budget to build two Island Home-style ferries for the Port Townsend-Keystone route.
Todd proposed bid was $124,450,559 for two vessels. It bid $65,487,328 for one, with Todd Chief Executive Officer Steve Welch explaining that the tight deadline and rising expense of materials drove the price up.
The state settled for one ferry — for now — to expedite construction.
The state originally budgeted $84.5 million for the two-ferry project, but this legislative session ended with money budgeted for two 64-car ferries earmarked for the Port Townsend-Keystone run.
A third 64-car ferry is planned for use elsewhere in the system, state officials have said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
