Todd gets local ferry contract

Todd Pacific Shipyards of Seattle, USA, has been selected to build four 105 metre long ferries worth up to $223 million for Washington State Ferries. The state will negotiate a design-and-construction contract with Todd, which built the last state ferries, the Jumbo Mark II class, between 1997 and 1999. That contract produced the ferries Tacoma, Puyallup and Wenatchee.

The ferry operator urgently needs these newbuildings since they will be replacing vessels over 75 years old. The state hopes construction can begin in November 2006 and the first boat could be ready for service in 2008. The new ferries will replace the steel-class boats built in 1927 that operate on the route between Port Townsend and Keystone and the inter-island runs in the San Juan Islands

The state ferries also picked Valley Detroit Diesel Allison, a Californian company, to build the diesel mechanical propulsion system for the vessels at a total cost of $44 million. The new ferries, each capable of carrying 130 cars and 1,200 passengers, will be the size of the Issaquah-class ferries built in the late 1970s.

The announcement is good news for a company that has struggled, as other shipbuilding companies have, with the economic downturn in the Northwest. Last year, Todd won a contract worth up to $133 million to repair and maintain the Navy’s Puget Sound-based aircraft carriers. But that followed an announcement that Todd was laying off 500 workers because the Navy decided to cancel a planned overhaul of a large supply ship and decommission it instead.