Post by ferryfast admin on Dec 8, 2007 16:55:25 GMT -5
Dec, 8, 2007
Repair work on 80-year-old ferries to cost more, take longer
EVERETT, Wash. -- Emergency repair work on the state's oldest ferries is likely to take longer and cost millions of dollars more than previously expected, officials say.
Work thus far has turned up far more corrosion than expected on the Quinault and the Illahee, which have been out of service, along with two other 80-year-old Steel Electric-class vessels, since extensive hull-pitting was discovered Nov. 20. Because they are the only car ferries that can navigate the Keystone-Port Townsend run, that run now offers only passenger-only service.
Officials had hoped to have the Quinault and Illahee up and running in February, but on the Quinault 45 percent of the hull steel is beyond repair, Hadley Greene, communications manager for the Washington State Ferries, told The Herald of Everett. Crews have been working on the vessel nonstop for about three weeks and have been encountering more problems at every step.
"Every time as they see more and more of the hull revealed, it just grows and grows," Greene said.
Similar problems are evident on the Illahee.
State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said the state soon must decide whether it can afford to spend any more money on the Steel Electrics.
"When it's $4 million to $6 million, then maybe it's OK," she said. "When we're getting up to $7 million to $8 million, we're getting up to almost half of what a new vessel would cost. We just have to decide whether we want to spend the money."
Some lawmakers have grown skeptical about the mounting repair bill.
"Do we want to invest so much money into something that we're not sure is going to last very long?" asked State Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee. "At some point it doesn't make sense."
The Steel Electrics are the oldest ferries operating in saltwater in the nation, and since the 1950s, none has met federal safety regulations designed to keep vessels stable and afloat even in the event of a mishap causing serious flooding. State lawmakers approved the ferries' retirement in 2001, but ferry officials instead pursued plans to build boats too large to work as replacements.
An additional complication is that the vessels, now in dry dock at Todd Pacific Shipyards on Harbor Island in Seattle, must be moved by the end of January to make room for previously scheduled projects there.
The state already has spent roughly $4 million on emergency repairs to the Steel Electrics this year and anticipated spending another $4 million to repair the Quinault, Greene said. The new problems on that vessel are expected to cost another $1 million.
Information from: The Herald, www.heraldnet.com