Cracks in hulls sideline 4 state ferries

The state's oldest ferries will be tied up indefinitely, while they are inspected for cracks and leaks in their 80-year-old hulls.

"I realize the timing of this couldn't be worse. It is Thanksgiving weekend," said Paula Hammond, state Transportation secretary. "Safety is our number one priority. I'm declaring that for safety sake, we need to do an inspection. We're going to pull them out and do a deep inspection."

On Thanksgiving weekend last year on the Keystone-Port Townsend route, the ferries carried 300 foot passengers and 1,000 cars each day.

The Steel Electric boats — the Klickitat, the Illahee, the Nisqually and the Quinault — were built in 1927 and serve the Port Townsend-Keystone and the San Juan Islands inter-island routes. They are the only ferries capable of operating in Keystone's narrow and shallow harbor.

"It's terrible. It's like a bridge going down," said State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee. "The fact they're facing a two-month outage is terrible."

The ferries have been watched by the Coast Guard because they have never met certain safety standards. Leaks forced these Steel Electric Class ferries to be sidelined for maintenance several times in recent years and in late June the Coast Guard ordered Washington State Ferries to take immediate steps to fix the problems causing frequent leaks.

The ferries were pulled from service after their last sailing last night.

"After meeting with staff concerning the most recent inspections of the Steel Electric hulls, I have decided that we must pull these ferries from service to examine each of the hulls more extensively," said Hammond. "Ongoing work on the Quinault has revealed significant hull pitting along the keel that likely extends to all four Steel Electric vessels."

She said what threw them is they saw paint that looked bubbled or funny. "Even in some areas where there was good looking paint, we found some pitting," she said.

Now two Steel Electric ferries are operating, the Klickitat on the Port Townsend-Keystone route and the Illahee on the San Juan run. Tomorrow the ferry Evergreen State will replace the Illahee.

Ferry officials have admitted that they provided an incomplete picture of problems on the old ferries when they briefed Washington legislators last month.

Ferry officials told the Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee that the Steel Electric Class ferries are "generally considered to be in good condition."

They now acknowledge finding two dozen more cracks in the aging steel than they told lawmakers about. Corrosion of hull plates also is more widespread than reported, and severe enough that more unplanned repairs appear likely for the Quinault and Klickitat, ferry officials said.

Other troubles have been discovered recently as part of ongoing work to bring the vessels into compliance with Coast Guard orders for stepped up inspection and maintenance.

A consultant hired to inspect the ferries submitted reports identifying 184 fractures in the four vessels steel hulls. Ferries documented places where the metal in the hulls' plating or supporting frame has weakened or been damaged over time.

Whatever the state decides to do with the boats, it will cost a lot of money, said Haugen. She said the problems with the Steel Electrics was discovered when the Quinault was being scraped in dry dock, and it could cost as much as $500,000 just to assess the condition of the other boats. "Where's the money? That becomes the issue," she said. "We need to see if we can get the Quinault back in the water and need to keep that boat running."

She said she figured the Coast Guard would shut the boats down, as it had been threatening.

What's ahead for ferries

"I have asked the ferry system to work with local shipyards to fast track a solution to get car ferry service back on this route as quickly as possible," said Hammond. "Our first priority is to assess the full range of hull pitting in each vessel and determine the extent and cost of needed repairs. Depending on what is found, the next step will be repair or retirement of the steel electrics."

She said the ferry system must expedite finding funding for replacing the old boats, and is researching the feasibility of hull replacement on the existing steel electrics.

Haugen is encouraged by that possibility and said it is crucial that the ferries return to the Port Townsend route. She said many people use that ferry and while putting a passenger ferry on the run will help, it won't deal with freight.

Haugen said she doesn't fault the ferry system for providing incomplete information at the briefing last month. At the time the Quinault hull hadn't been scraped. It's like you paint a wall and see a spot." Haugen said. "You start tearing it out and find out it's a whole lot worse."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.