Shipbuilder from small B.C. town shortlisted to build hybrid ferry for Kootenay Lake
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2019 03:46:37 +0000
Waterbridge Steel of Nakusp in the Kootenays is one of three B.C. shipbuilders shortlisted to deliver a new hybrid electric-diesel ferry for the Kootenay Lake route.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure revealed Waterbridge — as well as North Vancouver companies Allied Shipbuilders and Western Pacific Marine — had qualified as bidders to design and build a 60-vehicle ferry that would bolster the summer service of the larger MV Osprey. The smaller and aging MV Balfour ferry (built in 1954) will be replaced by the hybrid ferry, due to arrive by the spring of 2023.
The ministry stated the ferry would be powered by a hybrid diesel-electric engine that could be fully converted to electric by 2030. This is part of CleanBC plans to electrify the B.C. inland ferry fleet by 2040. The NDP government’s CleanBC climate change plan lays out a target of a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 levels by 2030, 60 per cent by 2040 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Conversion to electric for the new ferry was also dependant on having technology “reliable enough to use on a daily basis,” according the ministry statement.
The ministry is also upgrading the Balfour and Kootenay Bay ferry terminals as part of the $50-million provincial-federal joint project to improve the nine kilometre run that links highways 31 and 3A (on the west and eastern shores of the Kootenay Lake) at Balfour and Kootenay Bay.
Waterbridge won a ministry contact in 2012 to design and build the MV Columbia 80-car ferry that services the Shelter Bay to Galena Bay run at the top of the Arrow Lake, west of the Kootenay Lake. The company also operates the Arrow Lake, Adams Lake and Francois Lake ferry runs.
Western Pacific Marine operates the Kootenay Lake ferry run, as well as the smaller Harrop to Glade ferry up river on the western arm of the lake.
— with a file from Rob Shaw