Gov. Bob Ferguson is currently weighing bids from two shipbuilders to construct badly needed boats for Washington State Ferries. But this moment is more than just deciding on a contract. It’s the governor’s best chance to stake out a long-term strategy that revives a fleet weakened by years of executive and legislative neglect.
The state system needs at least one shipyard as an enduring partner to build up to 16 new vessels, as called for in WSF’s long-range plan. Establishing a steady rhythm of regular vessel construction over more than a decade is the only way Washington’s ferry system can emerge from a crisis that has broken its network of marine highways.
Given the confines of the $1.3 billion ferry construction budget available to the governor, this first contract may only cover three new vessels, with the first likely delivered in 2030, Transportation Secretary Julie Meredith said recently.
That’s not enough. As of last year, just four of 21 WSF vessels are in a state of good repair as defined by the state’s transportation department. Five boats are over 50 years old — including the 1959-built Tillikum — and rack up pricey annual maintenance. Retirements are long overdue. Breakdowns will occur, especially as Ferguson has promised to increase boat service this summer, beginning with a second Seattle-Bremerton boat starting June 15.
Ferguson must play the long game. Shipyards need predictability. They do their best work — and will create the best price for Washington taxpayers — when they can plan on a steady stream of production.
“This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” said Josh Brown, executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council, a planning authority that distributes funding for transportation projects.
And make no mistake: it’s going to cost billions of dollars.
Given the state’s commitment to decarbonization, Ferguson and lawmakers should further tap proceeds from the Climate Commitment Act’s carbon auctions. The new cap-and-trade system has been criticized for not yet showing that it actually reduces carbon emissions in the state. Building hybrid-electric ferries, which will help reduce the 180,000 or so metric tons of carbon emitted by WSF as of 2019, seems exactly what that program was designed for.
Lawmakers in Olympia deserve credit for attracting two bids in the competition at all. For the last half-century, ferries have been required to be built in Washington shipyards. But in 2023, the Legislature overwhelmingly voted to open up bidding nationwide. About a dozen shipyards had previously expressed interest in WSF’s new contract, but disappointingly, only three prequalified for bidding. The one that dropped out of the final three, Philly Shipyard, now owned by South Korean company Hanwha, has no space for new orders through 2027, The New York Times reported this week.
Choosing to build vessels at Eastern Shipbuilding, on the Florida panhandle, is made more likely by Eastern’s cheaper bid; it proposes $251 million for the first boat versus the $338 million from Whidbey Island-based Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, the other bidder.
Pursuing a contract with Nichols would keep dollars local, help develop a local workforce and propel it to a new level of manufacturing capacity at a time when American shipbuilding has struggled to compete globally. But Nichols’ bid was markedly higher, even after taking into account a 13% credit lawmakers authorized to incentivize construction in Washington.
John Vezina, deputy assistant secretary for ferries, noted each ferry likely comes with about $150 million in additional costs, including escalator clauses for steel price increases, new Trump administration tariffs or other uncertainties.
Bringing costs down will take time, after a boatbuilder has certainty of work. Then the builder can ensure the steel and other supplies are on time, along with a workforce that can take years to develop and train.
A durable long-term contract also builds muscle memory — each vessel off the line will be built with lessons learned from the previous one, and likely constructed more efficiently, quickly and cheaply.
Ray Mabus, former secretary of the Navy under President Barack Obama, used to joke about his multiyear procurement approach to vessels, in his case a contract to build 10 new submarines for the price of nine. “We got a submarine for free,” he said at the time.
Washington shouldn’t expect a free ferry. But if Ferguson and lawmakers remain devoted to the construction of about a boat a year for the foreseeable future, they’ll eventually achieve a fully restored ferry system whose reliability today flirts with peril.
The governor has a chance to restore the clockwork reliability America’s largest ferry system used to be known for — but it will take patience and a bold financial vision to alter the course. He has an opening to do it. He should not squander the opportunity.
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