SEATTLE – The state’s effort to build a new 50-car ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone route hit rough waters today when only one shipbuilder submitted a bid for the contract.
And that bid came in $9 million higher than anticipated.
Todd Pacific Shipyards of Seattle proposed a price of $25,985,125 to build a boat using the basic design of the leased Steilacoom II-class vessel now in use on that route.
Engineers for the Washington State Department of Transportation had estimated the cost of construction to be $16.8 million.
“We’re disappointed the bid came in higher than our estimate,” said transportation department spokesman Lloyd Brown.
“We really don’t know what this means until we have time to go through and analyze more specifically what is in the bid and what are the reasons for the discrepancy,” he said.
In a letter, Todd officials said the added costs were for design changes requested by the ferry system plus labor and materials.
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