In July, the WTA started shopping for boat builders to build its first two new 149 passenger ferries to add to the region’s fleet by issuing a request for proposals to shipyards across the nation. "This is a monumental milestone for the WTA," said Charlene Johnson, WTA Board President. "The new boats will be the first visible sign of the WTA’s proposed expansion of ferry service on San Francisco," added Ms. Johnson. The boats will be paid for with new bridge toll revenues from Regional Measure 2.
Published: August, 2005
In July, the WTA started shopping for boat builders to build its first two new 149 passenger ferries to add to the region’s fleet by issuing a request for proposals to shipyards across the nation. This is a monumental milestone for the WTA, said Charlene Johnson, WTA Board President. The new boats will be the first visible sign of the WTA’s proposed expansion of ferry service on San Francisco, added Ms. Johnson. The boats will be paid for with new bridge toll revenues from Regional Measure 2.
The WTA expects to deliver their first boats by 2007 and will use them as spare vessels in case existing ferries need to be repaired, or if service needs to be enhanced due to increased demand. The construction of these vessels will provide the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District’s Ferry Division with unique alternatives and opportunities, including that of operating one [spare] vessel on our Sausalito route, said Deputy General Manger, Jim Swindler.
These spare vessels are also important emergency response assets in case of temporary disruption of transit services or damage to Bay Area highways and bridges. In 2008, the spare boats will be put into regular service to launch the South San Francisco to Oakland route until the boats for that service are delivered. The WTA plans to build a total of ten new boats expected within the next ten years.
The WTA’s boats will be built to stringent standards of reliability, safety, low emissions, and low wake impact. The boats will include a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) and a particulate trap. This technology will result in 85% lower air emissions than federal EPA requires. This investment in cleaner air emissions technology resulted from the WTA’s exhaustive environmental studies which took two years with strong participation from industry groups, environmentalists and the public. The WTA performed emissions testing and thorough analysis of alternative fuels and technologies.
Top of the Line Boats
Mary Frances Culnane, WTA Manager of Marine Engineering, said, These boats will be built using cutting-edge technology. Distinct features include electronic devices such as closed-circuit TV for optimum security, forward searching sonar for avoiding whale strikes and a Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) – a.k.a. a black box for determining the root cause of any malfunction.
Ms. Culnane is not a newcomer to building vessels. She managed new supertanker construction projects for Chevron. She is an US Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point) graduate and US Coast Guard licensed Chief Engineer having spent nearly ten years at sea on Exxon oil tankers. Recently the Department of Homeland Security Secretary appointed Mary to the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee as well as the Merchant Marine Personnel Advisory Committee.
Underscoring the Bay Area’s innovative mind-set, especially when it comes to environmental protection, Ms. Culnane added, Local support for ferries allows us the opportunity to push the technology envelope. What we are doing has the potential to alter the course of the entire ferry industry in a technically feasible, economically practical and environmentally responsible fashion.
Ms. Culnane is especially interested in passenger comfort and has included in the specifications: extra wide user-friendly seats, additional bicycle parking spaces, a well-stocked snack-bar, wireless internet connection, and larger bathrooms.
The Bay Area commuter ferry fleet currently amounts to 14 boats total. The region’s fleet transports the third larges number of commuters in the nation behind New York City and Seattle. Three operators serve six routes around the Bay.
A New Generation
The last boat launched in the Bay was the Vallejo Baylink Ferry’s Solano, in the summer of 2004. It broke new ground by having a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), like a catalytic converter on an automobile, drastically reduces diesel-produced air emissions. In addition, the new boat features a triple-wide window on the bridge for greater visibility for the captain.
Vallejo General Manager Marty Robbins waxes rhapsodic when speaking of the Solano which took him six years to build. Mr. Robbins said, You can’t take this process at face value because it begins in millions of ways and through the efforts of so many people that no one can claim full credit. It’s like tributaries formed by individual rain or snow drops. You start with a plan, an idea, then involve naval architects, a shipyard, engineers, and designers, just to name a few people. I am very lucky to have been part of this process on several such projects.
WTA’s Search for a Home
The WTA is also in the process of choosing and developing a site for their berthing and maintenance space. Finding the right site is no easy task, since the requirements are many. The site must be on the water, allow fuel storage and dispensing, be adequate for vessel mooring and repair work, have administrative office space, potential passenger facilities and crew space, maintenance room, storage, layover berthing, be transit accessible and have flexibility to expand. The WTA sought a site with minimum 11,600 square feet to start and capable of expanding to nearly 17,000 square feet by 2010.
The WTA identified two sites, picked from among a small selection of available sites along the water: Alameda Point in Alameda and the Port of San Francisco’s Pier 54, located south of SBC Baseball Park. Discussions with the cities of Alameda and San Francisco are preliminary – and WTA expects to hire consultants to assist with lease negotiations, regulatory compliance and construction management. Once the WTA has selected a site, they expect that it will be ready in time for the first new ferry route to launch in 2008.
