Mukilteo’s dream ferry terminal not in the plans

Published 11:22 pm Sunday, March 16, 2008

MUKILTEO — Mukilteo may get a ferry terminal on its waterfront sooner than expected, but it won’t be the terminal city leaders had hoped for.

Engineers with Washington State Ferries are revising their plans for a new ferry terminal in Mukilteo in hopes of keeping the project’s price tag around $150 million.

To control costs, the new terminal’s plans must be scaled back — which means no commuter holding lanes built over the water, as Mukilteo officials had wanted. Also, the site of the new terminal must be moved about 600 feet east or west, where better soil conditions would cut as much as $100 million from the terminal’s estimated cost, said John White, director of terminal engineering for the ferry system.

The revisions to Mukilteo’s terminal plans are conceptual at this point, White said. If lawmakers support the revised plans, construction could start in 2011. That’s four years earlier than funding was recently expected to be available.

“All of this work has the intent or the hope of getting this project moving again,” White said.

The new design concepts for Mukilteo’s ferry terminal drew bittersweet reaction from Mayor Joe Marine.

“I would still like to see it go forward, it’s just not the alternative I would have liked to see,” Marine said.

For years, city leaders have pushed for a new ferry terminal with holding lanes over the water, which would open up the waterfront in Old Town for new business growth.

The city’s preferred plan was expected to cost $167 million, while the state had roughly $147 million budgeted for the work. Since then, several factors — including unstable soil, rising construction costs and the possible discovery of remnants of an ancient American Indian village — drove costs up above $300 million.

Construction was expected to start this year. Instead, work was delayed indefinitely, in part because state lawmakers balked over the notion of paying up to $54,000 for each over-the-water parking space.

The ferry system’s terminal construction plans have come under increasing scrutiny after legislative consultants have recommended shifting money to place more priority on replacing aging ferries. Some of the money for three new boats the state hopes to build first was already shifted from the Mukilteo terminal project.

“We would just like to get it back on track, and to get it moving forward again,” Marine said.

The previous terminal plans were drawn up to meet the needs of ferry commuters through 2030. The new plans would meet the ferry system’s short-term goals, with room to be expanded later, White said.

The state studied the possibility of renovating Mukilteo’s existing terminal, but found that option to be more expensive than building new. Also, renovating the existing terminal wouldn’t solve the city’s problem of ferry traffic lining up on Mukilteo Speedway, the main road for accessing several neighborhoods and restaurants in Old Town.

“It still left the existing terminal right there, smack-dab in the middle of the developed waterfront,” White said.

State Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, said he hasn’t given up on holding lanes for the new terminal being built over the water.

However, moving the project forward is what matters most, he said.

“If we can have additional open space, park space and some mixed-use development, all that stuff would be great,” Liias said. “But I think the core focus was always on getting a better ferry terminal.”