By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Until a few years ago, Washington State Ferries service was reliable, dependable, fully filling its role as part of the state highway system.

Now, WSF sails in turbulent waters daily – with shortages of boats and workers, cancelling sailings and/or falling behind schedule. On the other side of a 15-minute rain from West Seattle, ferry-dependent Vashon Island is suffering in a big way, since the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route has been hit especially hard. It’s long been down to two boats when it’s supposed to have three, and sometimes reduced to one by vessel breakdowns or crew unavailability. Delays happen daily. There’s a shorter route – Point Defiance-Tahlequah – between south Vashon and the Tacoma area, but its one-boat baseline service is not immune to trouble.

This is affecting lives and livelihoods, say island residents – with health, business, educational, and other impacts – and a group has convened to do more than complain and despair. They’ve come up with a list of more than 50 actions that they say could help, and group reps sailed over to West Seattle on Monday to announce their recommendations in the form of a “community report.”

This isn’t just a to-do list for the ferry system. The group, Islanders for Ferry Action, says, “We stand ready to partner with any agency that will help implement the solutions we have documented in this report.” (Read it here.) Some of the recommendations are actions that could be taken by community members. Others would have to be taken on by other agencies or organizations. The islanders know it’ll be years before WSF’s fleet and workforce are back to past numbers, so they’ve worked to suggest actions they believe would make an immediate difference.

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Received this morning from Washington State Ferries:

(Photo courtesy WSF)

As part of our ongoing efforts to preserve the Fauntleroy terminal until it can be replaced, there will be night-time construction work at the terminal today, Monday, October 30, and tomorrow, Tuesday, October 31, to replace timber decking in the exit lanes. Last spring, we put a steel plate where timber decking and asphalt had failed and now crews will repair the deck and repave the area. Construction work will occur from 7:00 p.m. – 4:00 a.m. both nights, with loud work only occurring between 7-10 p.m. The location of the work will require that we single lane offload the vessel and reduce the holding lanes a bit. This could cause some service delays on the route due to the construction.

As for the dock-replacement project, that’s not expected to start construction before 2027. Here’s our most-recent report.

10:56 AM: Washington State Ferries‘ Triangle Route is running with only one boat right now because M/V Kittitas is out of service with a “radar issue.” Getting a replacement is likely complicated by the fact the Seattle-Bremerton run’s lone boat is also out of service with mechanical trouble. More info on the WSF bulletins page.

1:42 PM: As commenter Erik points out, Kittitas has been repaired and is back in service.

(The seven size/shape options that represent the nine alternatives)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Nine possible sizes and shapes for Fauntleroy’s new ferry dock were shown by Washington State Ferries when it convened the project’s Community Advisory Group last night for the first time since Septtember 2022.

Since then, WSF has extended the timeline for the project by two years. And ferry-system leaders said they expect to have to ask the State Legislature for more money, no matter which option is chosen.

In addition to reviewing the nine possibilities, group members also picked up on some new factors in the discussion. For example, they noted that WSF managers brought Captain’s Park into it for the first time – that’s the tall-tree-dotted lookout spot atop the embankment immediately across lower Fauntleroy Way from the dock entrance. After a followup question from advisory-group member Judy Pickens of Fauntleroy, WSF’s David Sowers said that if it were determined that Fauntleroy Way needed an extra lane for smoother traffic flow, they’d have to cut into the bluff. “Not something we want to do but something our consultant brought up.” Pickens warned it would surface a multitude of issues, including archaelogical considerations.

But let’s get back to those alternatives. First, here’s what they ruled out in the first two levels of screening possibilities:

And here are the basics for the two concepts they settled on:

Note that slide says “same size.” Reviewing the nine options, advisory-group member Frank Immel of Fauntleroy observed that the first three are described instead as “similar size,” and would be at least 18 feet wider than the current dock. Design-team manager Edd Thomas attributed that to “design standards” including lane width on the dock, plus the addition of bike lanes and a motorcycle staging lane. So, starting with the “similar size” Alternative A and its two ticketing variations, here are the options – note that 124 cars is something of a magic number because that’s the capacity of the Issaquah-class ferries serving the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route:

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(See color renderings in the full slide deck.) Here are characteristics that all those options have in common:

This meeting wasn’t to settle on one of them – in fact, the Community Advisory Group members were also asked for feedback on the proposed criteria that WSF staff will udr to screen them. But they did have questions. One that came up multiple times was whether the dock can remain somehow partly in service during construction, or whether all boats will have to be diverted. Sowers said that hadn’t been decided yet. Was overhead passenger loading under consideration? They still need to “study” it. What about a second slip? Sowers said that can’t be “completely ruled out” but it would cost at least $40 million more than they have in the budget – a budget that they expect will ultimately be inadequate anyway, requiring a request to the Legislature for more money just to build the basics.

Another question – why are two “A” options the only ones that might incorporate either Good To Go or “advanced” ticketing, which had been discussed extensively at previous meetings as possible ways to speed up loading and avoid backups on Fauntleroy Way? The reply was that they only considered using them to get more “bang for the buck” if the smallest size was chosen.

And in addition to the question mentioned earlier about Captain’s Park, concerns also surfaced about Cove Park. WSF had previously scrapped the idea of over-land dock widening, particularly because of possible effects on that beloved, community-stewarded beach immediately north of the dock. Yes, there’s likely to be “some effects,” WSF’s environmental lead Marsha Tolon acknowledged. She also spoke to another environmental factor – how the project could affect eelgrass in the cove.

The online meeting (Friday morning update: see the video here) wrapped up after two hours; WSF promised to bring the group together again after a much-shorter time, “early next year.” After that, they’d likely have community meetings. A preferred alternative is to be chosen by 2025, with construction starting by 2027.

FEEDBACK: If you have something to tell the WSF project team, FauntleroyTermProj@wsdot.wa.gov is the email address to use.

Both of West Seattle’s major transportation projects have their first community meetings in months – and both are happening tomorrow night. Earlier today, we published a reminder of the Sound Transit light-rail meeting; we’ve since been reminded (thank you!) that the Community Advisory Group for Washington State Ferries‘ Fauntleroy dock-replacement project meets Wednesday night too, This meeting is online, 6-8 pm. We first mentioned this meeting two months ago; it’s the first time WSF has convened this group since September of last year. Since then, as we also reported in August, WSF has pushed the construction timeline back two years, to 2027-2029. There’s no agenda posted yet for tomorrow’s meeting, but advance materials sent to group members indicate they’ll get a briefing on possible alternatives for how the dock could be rebuilt at its current location. You can go here to register for the meeting link.

(Photo by Mark Dale, July 28, 2022)

Thanks for the tips. Fourteen and a half months after the state ferry M/V Cathlamet hit an offshore structure at the Fauntleroy terminal, the National Transportation Safety Board has announced the results of its investigation. First, here’s the NTSB summary:

Fatigue and complacency led to a Washington State Ferries passenger and car ferry striking a mooring structure, or dolphin, at a Seattle ferry terminal last year, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. The contact resulted in $10.3 million in damages to the vessel and $300,000 in damages to the dolphin.

The Cathlamet had crossed Puget Sound with 94 people on board and was approaching the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal on July 28, 2022​, when it struck the ferry terminal dolphin. One minor injury was reported.

The master did not take any action to correct the ferry’s course, slow down or sound the alarm before the contact. He also did not recall what happened and seemed unaware of how the ferry ended up striking the dolphin. Investigators found these events were all consistent with incapacitation from a microsleep, a brief period of sleep lasting a few seconds, due to fatigue.

“Fatigue affects all aspects of human performance, including decision-making, alertness, and reaction time,” NTSB investigators said in the final report. “Mariners should understand the performance effects of sleep loss and recognize the dangers of fatigue, such as microsleeps. When affected by fatigue, mariners should arrange for a qualified watchstander to serve in their place and avoid being on duty when unable to safely carry out their responsibilities.”

The NTSB also found the Cathlamet bridge team exhibited complacency by not complying with Washington State Ferries’ policies when undocking and docking the ferry. The Cathlamet quartermaster did not actively monitor the master as the ferry approached the dock, as required by company policy. Had he done so, he could have quickly taken the helm when the master became incapacitated.

“Complacency occurs when operators repeatedly complete a task without consequence, desensitizing them to its inherent risk,” the report said. “To combat complacency, operators should comply with procedures, such as operating checklists, that are in place to prevent single points of failure, and companies should train operators on the importance of following procedures.”

The full 18-page investigation report is here. It includes this:

Coast Guard Investigators interviewed the master on the day of the casualty. When asked if he felt rested when he arrived at the vessel on the morning of the casualty, the master said, “Well, I don’t know if I’d call it 100% rested … I mean, it was hot out, very hot, you know, trying to sleep.” (At the time of the casualty, there was a heat wave occurring in the Seattle area.) The master informed investigators of a family member’s medical condition and overall health, which had been deteriorating, and that the situation had been bothering him. The master told investigators, “I got engagement, and the next thing I know I hit, I hit the dolphin. That’s all I know.”

The master retired from WSF the day after the casualty, surrendered his Coast Guard credential, and would not provide any additional information to investigators.

Washington State Ferries released its own report back in March (WSB coverage here), as the repaired ferry was finally returning to service. The federal report lists a higher cost ($10.6 million) for the ferry and structure damage than WSF cited ($7.7 million) back in March