SEATTLE — Work has officially begun on the companion 64-car state ferry that will ply the Port Townsend-Keystone with a first vessel that launches later this year.
State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond welded her initials to the keel of the yet-to-be named ferry to mark the start of construction Monday at Todd Pacific Shipyards at Seattle’s Harbor Island.
This is the second Kwa-di Tabil class ferry for the run that ties together state Highway 20 between the North Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island.
State ferries is accepting proposed names for the new vessel.
The first new ferry, named Chetzemoka after the late Klallam chief who lived in Port Townsend, is being outfitted and tested at Everett and is slated to go into service in late summer.
Todd Pacific was awarded a $114 million contract to build three Kwa-di Tabil class ferries.
The word means “little boat” in the Quileute language and was suggested to the state ferry agency by Blue Heron Middle School students in Port Townsend.
The third Kwa-di Tabil ferry will go on the Point Defiance-Tahlequah route near Tacoma in 2012.
The contract has an option for a fourth vessel that would be either a 64-car ferry or 144-car vessel.
Hammond and state ferries chief David Moseley were on hand Monday to help Todd officials commemorate the event.
“These new ferries represent progress toward a more reliable ferry system, which is critical for the economic prosperity of ferry communities,” said Hammond, who abruptly retired the state’s four 80-year-old Steel Electric class ferries — two of which worked the Port Townsend-Keystone run — at Thanksgiving 2008.
At least three of the aged ferries had severe hull damage and were deemed dangerous.
The state has leased the 55-car Steilacoom II from Pierce County to provide single ferry service between Port Townsend and Keystone since January 2009.
