EDITOR'S NOTE: This story version updates and corrects an earlier version that ran online and in The News Tribune Oct. 11. That story was an earlier draft that ran inadvertently because of a computer error.
Washington taxpayers are paying way too much money to design and build the state ferry fleet's newest vessels, partly because state officials are in a hurry to get them built and partly because of a long-standing and costly practice of tinkering with boat designs.
Those are the views of state Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, a retired U.S. Navy captain whose 26th Legislative District includes Bremerton and Southworth, communities for which the ferry system is a vital element of life.
"We're about to buy one of the most expensive ferries in history, and then we're going to go out and buy two more of them," Seaquist said. "We're throwing away taxpayer money here. These things are too damn expensive."
David Moseley, assistant transportation secretary for ferries, acknowledged the cost of a 64-car vessel now under construction will be pretty high because the state wants to get that first vessel into service by mid-2010. Construction is on a fast track, 18 instead of 24 months.
But he disputes the notion the ferry system has gone overboard on its designs. Moseley said the design of the 64-car ferry is based mostly on an existing vessel, the Island Home, which is now used on the East Coast.
That 76 vehicle, 1,200 passenger, ferry cost $32 million to build and was launched in 2007 by the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. Building the first ferry of the Washington fleet expansion will cost more than double that: $65.3 million.
It will cost an additional $11.5 million to outfit the $65 million ferry, for a total cost of $76.5 million. That includes previous design work, the cost of adding lifeboats and other features and the state's in-house cost of overseeing construction, ferry system officials said.
Moseley points out that the design had to be modified, tailored to Puget Sound waters and state ferry terminals. The state is ordering two or three more vessels of the same design. Multiple vessels would give the state some economies of scale, lowering the average cost for each boat by spreading costs over several vessels, Moseley said. In fact, based on bids that were submitted Thursday, the cost of building a total of three or four ferries would average about $55 million apiece.
"I'm pleased that the bids came in at the lower price," Moseley said. "We thought that would be a likelihood, given what we learned from building the first one."
The ferry system announced Tuesday it will award a contract for the second and third ferries to Todd Shipyards for $114 million.
Pierce County has more than a passing interest in the construction and deployment of the 64-car ferries.
For one, the county has loaned its own ferry, the Steilacoom II, to the state to fill in on some ferry routes while the new ferries are being built. Secondly, one of the new 64-car ferries - the third one - eventually will be assigned to the run between Tacoma and Vashon Island. It will replace the 48-car Rhododendron, which was built in 1947 and is the oldest vessel in the fleet.
The state ferry system has been in a bind since November 2007. That's when state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond ordered all four of the 80-year-old Steel Electric-class ferries pulled out of service because engineers said they were unsafe. Those ferries have since been sold, and now are in Mexico, Moseley said.
Seaquist said it was a mistake to discontinue all four of those boats at once. The state should have tried to salvage at least one of them so there wouldn't be so much urgency to fast-track construction of their replacements, he said.
"When they got rid of the steel ferries, they were stuck needing to replace those boats immediately," he said. "And they seized on the design of the Island Home ferries from Martha's Vineyard."
He and Moseley agreed that fast-track construction is making that first boat much more expensive. A legislative requirement to build the boat in Washington also is a factor in the higher cost, Moseley said.
The first 64-car vessel is being built by Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle and at three other locations, including Jesse Engineering in the Tacoma Tideflats. The Tacoma firm is building the fore and aft modules and will be sending them north by barge to Seattle later this month for assembly.
Todd brought the other shipyards on board because of the fast-track schedule to replace the Steel Electric ferries.
"It was a tight schedule," said Jeff Gellert, president of Jesse Engineering. "They had to spread the work around."
Seaquist said he's also concerned about the design of another vessel, a 144-car ferry that will be used on cross-Puget Sound runs such as the Bremerton-Seattle route.
"They've gone through $52 million just to design the ferry, and now we're paying Todd Shipyards to do more detailed designs," said Seaquist.
Moseley said Seaquist's $52 million figure is too high. The state has spent a total of $14.6 million designing the larger vessels, Moseley's staff told The News Tribune Friday.
Seaquist said there still is a duplication of effort that makes ferries more expensive. Private ferry builders pad their construction bids to cover the risks they are taking by agreeing to build off someone else's plans, he said.
"We've heard a lot of the criticism in how we 'over-managed' the construction management of the boats in the past," said Moseley, who took over the helm of the ferry system only 18 months ago. But the lower $55 million bids for the additional 64-car ferries "demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of our partnership with Todd," Moseley said.
Moseley and an executive for Todd Shipyards gave a status report on the 64-car ferry construction to lawmakers earlier this month. That included all the design changes that had to be made to the Island Home designs to adapt the vessel to Puget Sound.
Among the changes:
The shape of the hull was changed to fit Washington ferry terminals.
The Island Home carries 76 cars and 650 passengers. The new ferry will carry 64 cars and 750 passengers.
The ship's length was increased by 19 feet.
Bicycle holding areas were added and the air conditioning system was eliminated.
The size of the fuel, fresh water and sewage tanks were increased to minimize delays for loading and unloading.
"They have this culture of designing things in-house," Seaquist said of Washington State Ferries. By custom designing its own ferries instead of buying vessels "off the shelf," the agency drives up the costs, he said.
Those costs will worsen an already bad budget situation for the ferries, he said.
The Legislature has budgeted $115 million to design and build 64-car ferries during the 2009-11 budget cycle. Lawmakers assume there will be at least three such boats.
They also earmarked $2.5 million for finish design work on the 144-car ferry.
An additional $69.4 million is budgeted for 2011-13 to finish the three smaller boats. There also is $78 million in the budget, either to build a fourth 64-car vessel or to apply toward the 144-car ferry.
The long-range plan assumes an additional $249 million would be spent on ferry construction in 2013-15, but lawmakers don't know where most of that money would come from. They will have only about $30 million on hand.
Moseley told members of the Senate Transportation Committee earlier this month that he doesn't expect a decision to be made on whether to build a fourth 64-car ferry or the first 144-car ferry until the 2011 legislative session.
"We need both," he said. "But my crystal ball is still fuzzy."
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com Joseph Turner: 360-786-1826 blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
