BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — If you’re an Uber driver, get ready to work some long hours but make some big bucks Thursday through Sept. 13.
That’s when Washington State Ferries is going to stop allowing vehicles on the Bainbridge Island-Seattle route for a $33 million project to replace the 50-year-old overhead passenger walkway on Bainbridge Island.
Folks on both sides of the water are going to need transportation to and from the docks as only walk-ons will be accepted those six days.
Washington State Ferries said that the new structure, which prior to COVID handled 3.2 million passengers a year, will be seismically safe. Installing the large walkway spans requires a six-day closure of the entire vehicle holding area to allow crews to stage cranes and equipment to lift and lower the walkway spans onto concrete and steel pilings in the water.
Only one boat will be on the route instead of the usual two during the six-day closure. A third boat will be added to the Kingston-Edmonds run.
Washington State Ferries also was considering Bremerton for that boat.
As crewing and vessel availability allow, WSF said in a press release that it will provide partial daily additional service on the Edmonds/Kingston route during the September closure to vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles on the Bainbridge/Seattle run.
Because WSF is operating the Seattle/Bainbridge route on a one-boat sailing schedule with only walk-on passengers its second boat is available to provide unscheduled service as a third boat on the Edmonds/Kingston run.
It will operate around the two-boat schedule there to handle additional vehicle traffic traveling to or from Bainbridge Island and the Kitsap Peninsula.
In addition to the six-day closure, the project requires two to three short closures of the existing overhead passenger walkway to update mechanical equipment.
During those closures, all walk-on and roll-on passengers will load and offload using the car deck. Special accommodations will be made for ADA passengers. There will be no changes for drive-on passengers or bicyclists.
The dates for the walkway closures have not been scheduled.
John Vezina of WSF told the Bainbridge Island City Council in June that people will be able to bike to the ferry and walk on. There are spots for 112 bikes at the Kitsap Transit Bike Barn on Bainbridge Island, and WSF is trying to find places for bikes at Colman Dock in Seattle, too.
The four huge structures will come by barge from Tacoma and take up the space usually used for vehicles waiting for the ferry on Bainbridge Island. The largest span is 199 feet long and weighs 45 tons.
Vezina suggested trying mass transit.
“If there ever was a time you thought of trying public transit this would be it,” he said.
Work from home if that is an option, he added.
The one-boat service from Bainbridge Island to Seattle will leave Monday through Friday at 12:55, 4:45, 6:20, 7:55, 9:40, 11:30 a.m. and 1:15, 2:55, 4:45, 6:40, 8:20, 10 and 11:30 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday times are 1:25, 5:20, 7:05, 8:45 and 10:25 a.m. and 12:20, 2:10, 3:55, 5:35, 7:15, 8:55 and 10:30 p.m., along with midnight.
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Bainbridge Island Review is a sister paper of the Peninsula Daiiy News within Sound Publishing, Inc.
