SEATTLE — The Legislature’s top transportation leaders on Monday said it is time to stop spending money trying to repair Washington’s leaking oldest ferries.
One key lawmaker said she wouldn’t trust the 80-year-old Steel Electric-class ferries to be safe even if millions of dollars more are spent on repairs.
“We can keep patching these up, but I’m not so sure I’m going to be willing to ride on (them) when we’re done,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate’s Transportation Committee.
The Steel Electrics simply have too many problems to continue spending money trying to keep them afloat, members of the Joint Transportation Committee told Washington State Ferries officials during a meeting in Seattle.
Although no vote was taken at the meeting, which involved nearly a dozen lawmakers, no one spoke in favor of paying for more repairs.
“I think what I’m hearing you all say is, ‘Stop,’ ” state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said.
“That’s exactly what we’re saying. Stop now,” Haugen said.
The Joint Transportation Committee is made up of lawmakers from both the Senate and the House. They clearly were not happy about the situation with the Steel Electrics, especially after spending roughly $4 million on emergency repairs this year.
“They’re done,” Haugen said later. “I’m very outraged. That’s why I say stop trying to fix something that doesn’t work.”
Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, also said it is time to pull the plug on the geriatric boats.
“We’re at a point where enough is enough already,” Clibborn said. “It’s good money after bad.”
Clibborn wants new ferries within a year. That’s something state ferry officials say would be almost impossible to accomplish.
“We should be getting something done, and doing it now,” she said. “I think we all need to have that sense of emergency, urgency and speed.”
Hammond told lawmakers their message was unmistakable, and that it ultimately will be Gov. Chris Gregoire’s call whether the Steel Electrics have carried their last car. She expects a decision to be made swiftly, but added that she would like to first listen to people at a community meeting about the ferry run in Port Townsend on Wednesday.
The Steel Electrics have had problems with leaks and cracks for years, but corrosion “pits” found on 1927-vintage riveted steel plate in the hulls prompted Hammond on Nov. 20 to order all four of the aging vessels tied up to undergo meticulous inspection and repairs.
The decision, on the eve of the Thanksgiving traffic rush, forced the ferry system to close down the Keystone-to-Port Townsend run. It has since reopened for passenger-only service.
Repair work has been under way on the Quinault and the Illahee, both now in dry dock in Seattle. That work may now be cut short.
Ferry officials on Friday announced that crews have determined that at least 45 percent of the hull steel on the Quinault has been deemed beyond repair and in need of replacement. That work likely would cost another $1 million and delay the ferry’s return to service into the spring at earliest, ferry officials said.
More damage that won’t be found until the last third of the hull is inspected could cost another million plus, officials added.
The state had expected to spend about $4 million on emergency repairs to the Quinault, but had completed only about 15 percent of that work when the scope of the problem became more clear.
Examination of the Illahee has already shown similar problems to those found on the Quinault. Hammond said she’s likely to order ferry system managers to stop a nearly $1 million assessment of the Illahee’s hull.
Haugen said it’s all money the state can’t afford to throw away.
“A million here, a million there, pretty soon it’s a lot of money,” she said. “I’ve been million-dollared to death.”
Haugen said she’s disappointed that it has taken the ferry system so long to determine that its oldest boats may need to be put down.
“My frustration is we didn’t get the information we needed to make good decisions,” she said.
As recently as Oct. 30, ferry officials told the same committee that the hulls of the Quinault, Illahee, Klickitat and Nisqually were generally in good condition.
None of the lawmakers on Monday grilled ferry officials about the mixed messages.
The Oct. 30 report “was based on the information we had at the time,” Paul Brodeur, director of vessel maintenance and preservation, said after the meeting.
As crews have investigated, “new information is coming available weekly,” Brodeur said.
Hammond, who took over as the ferry system’s top boss in October, said ferry workers have done their job, methodically uncovering more and more trouble.
The Steel Electrics are the oldest ferries operating in salt water 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.
Hammond said the choice for replacing the Steel Electrics appears to have been narrowed to two ferries, a 54-car ferry and another larger vessel, called the Island Home, that would take longer to build but carry about 70 cars.
Hammond said the smaller ferry, which has been pitched by Nichols Bros. Boat Builders Inc. in consortium with other local shipyards, could be built within a year after a contract is signed.
However, a consultant advising legislators said that the engines the state already purchased at $67 million, as part of its plan to build new boats, could fit into the Island Home design. That would shave time and about $10 million off the price tag for each new 70-car ferry built, consultant John Boylston said.
The state on Friday released a study on options for new ferries. The different designs would all carry 100 cars or fewer and be capable of replacing the Steel Electrics. Each vessel would cost about $30 million.
Hammond said she wants to have everything she needs to sign contracts for new ferries by the time the Legislature reconvenes in January.
Money to build the new boats could come from $348 million set aside for the construction of the quartet of 144-car ferries the state was planning to build until the Steel Electrics became a crisis.
Those larger vessels aren’t as urgent just yet, Hammond said. Money that would have gone to pay to build extensive new terminals at Mukilteo, Edmonds and other locations also could be tapped for ferry construction, she said.
Hammond said so far, no good options for providing temporary auto service between Port Townsend and Keystone have emerged.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
