State ferry passengers will have to wait even longer to sail on the ferry Tustumena’s replacement vessel. The more than $300 million project is not expected to be completed until at least the end of 2028 – a year later than originally anticipated.
Earlier this year the Alaska Marine Highway System had been estimating the new mainliner ferry would be done in 2027. But during an AMHS operations board meeting on Oct. 23, Director Craig Tornga said a Federal Transit Authority funding audit and long checklist of requirements has slowed things down.
“We’re still working through the programmatic side with the FTA,” Tornga explained. “We’re getting close. The FTA has commented that we’d have pre-award authority for all of the Tustumena funding by the end of the year.”
Once AMHS is given pre-award authority, Tornga said that essentially means then the Tustumena replacement project will be authorized to start soliciting bids.
Glosten, an architecture firm which has an office in Seattle, completed the final design for the replacement vessel back in 2022, but the project has yet to go out to bid for construction. The project’s request for proposal was expected to go out much earlier this year, and construction could have begun by December. Now, Tornga said that won’t happen until later this year.
That means the new Tustumena won’t likely be in service until 2030, making the original vessel 66 years old by the time it is fully retired. Tornga said there are several shipyards that have expressed interest in building the new ferry. The new vessel would be one of potentially several hybrid-electric ferries the marine highway system plans to have constructed in the coming years as part of its long-range plan.
The replacement vessel is set to be bigger than the existing Tustumena, carrying 250 passengers and up to 58 vehicles. In conjunction with the project, the ferry system is also looking to upgrade some of its terminals and infrastructure at various coastal locations across the state.
Meanwhile the Tustumena is in the midst of its scheduled winter sailings. The ferry’s last trip to Kodiak of the season is scheduled to arrive from Homer on New Year’s Day and depart for the last time that same evening.
After that the vessel goes into its annual overhaul, where it will receive much needed maintenance from January until April of 2025.
