By Joshua Balling
I&M Assistant Editor
The lion’s share of visible improvements to the Steamship Authority’s M/V Eagle included in its $7.8 million mid-life refurbishment will be postponed a year, SSA general manager Wayne Lamson said this week.
While the vessel’s below-the-waterline work will go forward as scheduled this off-season when the car ferry is offline for a Coast Guard-mandated drydock inspection, most of the improvements noticeable to passengers – including a complete renovation of its passenger areas and the installation of lift decks that will increase capacity by 12 cars – are now scheduled to be performed in late 2011 and early 2012 for a number of reasons, Lamson said.
“There are a number of benefits, really. If we were going to do everything this year, only shipyards capable of drydocking a vessel would able to bid. If a shipyard didn’t have one, they would have to subcontract that work out,” Lamson said.
“Next year, the refurbishment can be done pier-side. It should open up the number of shipyards that can bid on it. Hopefully they can give us a more competitive price.”
By splitting the project in two, the SSA can also examine the vessel when it’s out of the water during its Coast Guard inspection to determine whether anything else needs fixing or upgrading. Much of the drydock work will center on upgrading the vessel’s keel-coolers, which act much like a radiator and extract heat from the Eagle’s engines.
The SSA hopes to award a contract for the second phase of work by spring 2011, and remove the Eagle from service after Thanksgiving. The newly-refurbished boat should then be ready to return to service in the spring of 2012.
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