<p>As the Steamship Authority nears two years of off-season construction at its Woods Hole terminal, costs for the project have surpassed $70 million, boat line general manager Robert Davis confirmed this week.</p>
As the Steamship Authority nears two years of off-season construction at its Woods Hole terminal, costs for the project have surpassed $70 million, boat line general manager Robert Davis confirmed this week.
“It’s north of $70 million, yes,” said Mr. Davis, who was on the Vineyard to attend a Tisbury selectmen’s meeting Wednesday.
Begun in early 2018, the massive shoreside reconstruction project includes three ferry slips, two passenger piers, a ticket building and a reconfigured parking lot, among other changes to the Woods Hole terminal.
Work will include rebuilding three slips and a new ticket office.
Work will include rebuilding three slips and a new ticket office.
Construction work is suspended during the summer months. Projected in late 2017 to be completed over the next six years, the reconstruction has more than three years still to go, architect Chris Iwerks told SSA governors in November.
Contractor Jay Cashman Inc. of Quincy is working on one slip at a time in order to leave the terminal’s other two berths available for ferries.
This winter, Cashman has been rebuilding the middle slip, using powerful machine hammers to drive large pilings up to 100 feet into the soil beneath the water’s surface.
Cashman has also been using a ringer crane, based on a 160-foot-long barge, to lift the pilings from a smaller barge into position for driving.
The barges are located so close to the operational slips that SSA vessels have scraped them at least twice. In some wind and water conditions, ferry captains have canceled trips rather than try to maneuver past the barges.
The SSA is now down to a single slip for the next three weeks, as Cashman prepares to remove some of the barged equipment using the middle slip as a staging area. The boat line has issued a schedule update and said some trips may run up to 10 minutes late.
It’s not clear by how much the total price tag for the Woods Hole terminal reconstruction has exceeded original estimates.
Early this week the Gazette requested a detailed breakdown of costs to date on the project, but the boat line said it could not have the numbers ready by press time Thursday.
In 2015, SSA senior managers said at a meeting on the Vineyard that the project could cost as much as $68 million.
Later estimates brought the total closer to $64 million, but the preliminary number is coming nearer to the mark.
Jay Cashman Inc. is the contractor for the waterside work.
Jay Cashman Inc. is the contractor for the waterside work.
Speaking briefly to the Gazette before the Tisbury meeting Wednesday, Mr. Davis said a number of factors have contributed to increased expenses, including relocating the SSA’s administrative offices to a new building in Falmouth.
A prolonged design process for a new ticket office has also contributed to pushing up costs. Architects created more than two dozen different site plans for the terminal before a final version was selected, and are still developing a ticket building design after two years of often contentious public review.
Led by Woods Hole villagers and business owners, residents of Falmouth and the Vineyard alike persistently opposed a series of two-story building designs submitted between 2017 and 2019 by architects BIA.studio of Boston.
Last November, SSA governors approved a single-story concept with a
two-story utility building nearby.
Changes in the design concept up to that point had cost the boat line about $750,000, Mr. Davis told the board at that meeting.
Keeping the temporary terminal building, which opened to the public in late 2017, is not an option because the $2.6 million structure is not eligible for a permanent building permit, boat line officials have said.
The old terminal building, originally a loading shed for railroad freight in the 1950s, was demolished in March 2018, about a month behind schedule due to delays in completing the new administrative building on Palmer Avenue in Falmouth.
The new third slip is taking the place of the old building, while the future ticket office will be built on the spot currently occupied by the temporary building.
Construction work is set to continue through mid-May, at which point Cashman will withdraw its heavy equipment and materials until the fall.
Comments
Seventy Million! That is a
Ferry Rider MVSeventy Million! That is a crazy amount of money. Then again, you would be hard pressed to buy a dozen Edgartown waterfront properties for that, half a dozen of the best would cost a lot more. Just to put it in perspective. Sounds like they are doing a lot of hard dirty dangerous work with a ton of highly skilled workers over many years to provide both critical and pleasurable transport for what will amount to millions of people in the years to come. Thanks press for keeping a keen eye on the numbers and progress. I trust you to expose graft and waste if it shows itself. Until we see that, I say what a great way to spend 70 million. Doesn’t seem like so much money after all (says a guy with not a lot of money in the bank).
MV's MBTA
Bob EdgMV's MBTA
A favor here
Jim MenenshaA favor here
A payback there
Pretty soon you’re talking real money ...
Wouldn’t a redefinition of the remaining project and a concise set of milestones on the critical path to completion be a good idea?
Or would that be too much like project planning ?
Robert Davis has too go. What
TJ Hegarty wet tisburyRobert Davis has too go. What does it take. He has made a mess of the SSA.
I have to second that. His
MV Traveler Here and thereI have to second that. His background is in accounting. It’s just dollars to him. He needs to remember it’s OUR dollars. Tossing millions of dollars of overruns around like it’s just another day is sad.
The cost of unqualified
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownThe cost of unqualified commissioners and the general lack of leadership so prevalent on the Vineyard.
Most of this project was
Islander Too TisburyMost of this project was unnecessary.
I must be missing something
Kate Putnam EdgartownI must be missing something here. Are you saying that in order to get from the ticket office to the ferry, passengers will have to walk through buses, cars and trucks on the move? Am I the only one who thinks that replicating the current situation long term is dangerous? Add darkness to it and it seems crazy and criminal to have planned it that way.
Such concerns were raised
Islander Too TisburySuch concerns were raised when they made their first presentation of the new setup, at the Regional High School. And afterward. Steve Sayre called the access ramps to the ferries a "maze." That was just a rhetorical flourish to diss the setup that they wanted to replace. What do you call what is there now? Better it is not.
They really had no idea how the traffic pattern---staging of trucks and cars for three slips, spots for buses, walkways for pedestrians, etc.---was going to work. They just wanted a third slip and a new ticket office. They would work out the details later . . .
Right Right Right on.
ECS Ft Lauderdale / EdgartownRight Right Right on. However you would have been talking about a huge project to redo the traffic pattern - for example what would you have done with the long hill to the first ticket/check in shack. I suspect it couldn't have been done within the existing property bounds which means there would have had to have been land acqusition[s] probably through eminent domain, a huge, time consuming, expensive proposition. It should have at least been given consideration in the prelimary planning. It also quite possible the earlier 'professional planners' considered the traffic pattern but it was immediately obvious to them that the costs were so prohibitive that they blew it off when asked about it which of course was not the way to have handled the issue but similar to the way a great deal of this project was handled.
it is just a ticket office.
jon west tisburyit is just a ticket office. $70 seems absurd. They could just keep the current one and add a staging area for people waiting outside for the boats. Davis must go!
The reason the Big Dig costs
Jack FranklinThe reason the Big Dig costs soared was because it was bid on incomplete plans in a rush to get funding. Did the Steamship Authority not see this coming? Seems like poor planning.
This is just insane.
Lorraine EdgartownThis is just insane.
Unfortunate, but Davis must
Davis followerUnfortunate, but Davis must go. It is simply not reasonable to expect that someone who used to supervise a small number of accountants and has no professional maritime background be placed in charge of a large 500+ employee ferry agency This is not the fault of Davis as much as the fault of senior staff and the Board who appointed him. The procedure by which senior staff and Board members selected Davis was a sham. No candidates external to the SSA were allowed. Those Board members who allowed that senior-staff-determined selection procedure to go forward should resign. Hanover's move needs to be followed by the other SSA Board members. There is a reason that Lamson was passed over repeatedly by earlier Boards for selection as General Manager until he was finally appointed. More than anyone, it is Lamson together with an unaccountable Board during Lamson's tenure as GM who have left the SSA in its disgraceful state today.
It's no secret that the SSA
gina Menemsha/ NYC NYCIt's no secret that the SSA has been allowed to be managed as a political football since the beginning.. But times change & so should the SSA Management culture.. Call me crazy but every knows that construction NEVER. comes in on original bids. Seriously $70 mill + for a ticket terminal is embarrassing.. .
Add new comment