SEATTLE -- There is more bad news for Washington's oldest ferries.
Emergency repair work on the Quinault and Illahee, both 80-year-old Steel Electric-class ferries, is turning up far more corrosion than state officials expected.
On the Quinault alone, up to 45 percent of the hull steel has now been deemed beyond repair and in need of replacement, Hadley Greene, communications manager for Washington State Ferries, said Friday evening. 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.
That means fixing the ferries likely will take more time and cost millions of dollars more than even recent estimates, said Traci Brewer-Rogstad, the ferry system's deputy executive director.
State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said the time is approaching when the state has to 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."
State Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, said she's growing skeptical about the repair bill.
"Do we want to invest so much money into something that we're not sure is going to last very long?" she asked. "At some point it doesn't make sense."
The Steel Electrics are the oldest ferries operating in saltwater in the nation, and in places their hulls still feature the riveted steel plates they were launched with in 1927. State lawmakers approved the ferries' retirement in 2001, but ferry officials instead pursued plans to build boats too large to work as replacements.
The ferry system on Friday began circulating a draft study, ordered by the Legislature, outlining options for replacing the Steel Electrics. One option considered, but not recommended, is building two or more smaller ferries using a design promoted by Whidbey Island's Nichols Bros. Boat Builders, which recently reopened under bankruptcy protection.
The Steel Electrics have had problems with leaks and cracks for years, but corrosion problems in the hulls prompted Hammond on Nov. 20 to order all four of the aging vessels tied up to undergo inspection and repairs. The decision, on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday traffic rush, forced the ferry system to close down the Keystone-to-Port Townsend run. It has since reopened for passenger-only service.
Ferry customers are fuming.
"It's ridiculous," said Karis Mills, 31, of Oak Harbor, as she waited to board a passenger-only ferry at Keystone on Whidbey Island on Friday. "It was poor planning and neglectful."
The state had hoped to have the Quinault and Illahee repaired and back in service by February.
That now appears unlikely because of the amount of work that must be done, Brewer-Rogstad said.
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 other previously scheduled projects at the shipyards.
"It's a bigger problem and we don't have answers right now," Brewer-Rogstad said.
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 to repair.
The state has been spending $850,000 to prep the Illahee for work, and problems similar to those found on the Quinault are apparent, Brewer-Rogstad said.
"It's not looking good," she said.
As recently as Oct. 30, ferry officials were telling state legislators the Steel Electrics were generally in good condition.
That changed after Hammond learned the results of inspections by engineering crews on the Quinault, who earlier this fall received permission to begin searching for potential corrosion in hard-to-reach places deep in the hull.
Since the 1950s, none of the Steel Electrics have met federal safety regulations designed to keep vessels stable and afloat even in the event of a mishap causing serious flooding.
Clibborn said the Legislature will find money to pay for permanent replacement vessels for the Steel Electrics during the upcoming legislative session, but she said the first priority has to be to find a way to temporarily restore the Keystone-to-Port Townsend run.
"We'll find the money," she said.
She expects to hear proposals from ferry officials in meetings next week.
Brewer-Rogstad said ferry officials are exploring options for restoring some car-ferry service to Port Townsend if one or more Steel Electrics can't be repaired soon. Unlike narrow and shallow Keystone Harbor, Port Townsend can be used by larger ferries capable of traveling to other terminals in places such as Edmonds, Kingston, Clinton or Anacortes.
Pursuing those ideas would only come in consultation with ferry communities, Brewer-Rogstad said.
Ferry officials on Friday sent to many of those people the draft report they hope will help lawmakers decide how best to replace the Steel Electrics.
Two of the three strategies suggested by the ferry system's consultant would involve construction of ferries using a design developed by a Seattle naval architecture firm. Those ferries are now in use on the East Coast. The other option would be development of a new 100-car ferry design, something that only is recommended if two of the Steel Electrics can be repaired and returned to service. The estimated cost is $30 million to $40 million per vessel.
Under each option the consultant suggested, the state likely would not have a new ferry for two to three years, and the Legislature would have to take action to approve the project. The boats would be built in Washington shipyards.
"Current law says the vessel would be built in Washington state," Greene said.
Herald writer Kaitlin Manry contributed to this report.
