Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The Mat-Su Borough plans to spend $25,000 to study how much it will cost to run a passenger ferry between Anchorage and Mat-Su, and other potential ports of call.

Lew Madden, a contractor who is representing the borough while the ferry is being built in Ketchikan, said the so-called life-cycle cost analysis will hone in on actual costs for regular ferry inspections, maintenance, repairs, painting and other items.

The borough, in turn, will use those figures to calculate how often the ferry should run, which routes it should travel and how much to charge passengers, Madden said.

The ferry is being looked at as a way to move Valley commuters to Anchorage. With construction started on a new state prison, the Goose Creek Correctional Center near Point MacKenzie, borough officials are also pitching the ferry as a way for prison guards to commute to work from Anchorage and to move inmates to court dates and doctor appointments in the city.

Borough officials are also looking at other potential users, including Anchorage residents who want to jump-start their fishing or snowmachining weekend in the Valley by using the ferry.

Borough manager John Duffy has touted the possibility someone could construct a "toy-storage" building on the Point MacKenzie side where Anchorage residents could park their snowmachines or fishing boats and hook up to them after they drive off the ferry.

Using the ferry for trips to the Kenai and to the Native village of Tyonek have also been discussed.

The borough has signed an agreement with the Tyonek Native Corporation to work with village leaders to develop a regular stop to the community, although doing so would require building a landing for the ferry.

There are no answers yet for the big questions -- what will it cost to ride the ferry and how much are people willing to pay? At a borough Assembly meeting last year, Madden threw out estimates for one-way fares -- $10 for the 15-minute trip to Anchorage, $25 for a car, $250 for a truck or bus and $500 for a tractor-trailer.

Madden said those numbers are guesses based in part on what ferry operators elsewhere charge.

The figures could change, depending on what the life-cycle cost study shows and how much money the borough can get in federal public transportation subsidies, he said.

"We are considering looking at committing ourselves for oil spill remediation (and other accessory uses) to minimize the cost and maybe make a profit," Madden said.

Another big remaining question is when the borough will be able to use the ferry.

The ferry, a 198-foot long, $68 million ice-breaking twin-hulled ship designed for use by the military, is being built at Alaska Ship and Drydock in Ketchikan.

It's scheduled to be delivered to the borough as early as next summer.

But the borough has yet to find a landing site for the ferry in Anchorage and still needs funding to build a landing on the Mat-Su side.

This month, Mat-Su Port Director Marc Van Dongen pulled the borough's application to build a landing near the mouth of Ship Creek in Anchorage after the U.S. Coast Guard objected to the dock's location.

Van Dongen said the borough hopes to submit another application after it finds a ferry dock design that the Coast Guard, Cook Inlet Tug and Barge, and the Municipality of Anchorage can agree on.

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