Ed Goodwin, director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division is what you might call “bullish” on the idea of running passenger-only ferries between Hatteras and Ocracoke villages.
He enthusiastically endorsed the idea while he answered questions from curious citizens and members of the media who attended two public meetings earlier this week for an update on the state’s feasibility report on solutions to the congestion and long-waiting times on the Hatteras-Ocracoke route.
?There are a lot of moving parts here, but if they all come together, this (passenger-only ferries) could solve a lot of the issues for Ocracoke visitation,? said Ferry Division Director Ed Goodwin. ?It would ease the backups we have on the car ferry route, and bring more visitors with fewer cars into the village. On the surface, it seems like a win-win all around.?
When asked if he thought the state’s General Assembly — which has not been in much of a mood to endorse spending projects lately, especially in the eastern part of the state — would fund the passenger ferries, he answered quickly.
“Yes, ma’am!” he said.
Running a passenger-only ferry on the popular Hatteras-Ocracoke route is an idea that state officials are pursuing because of the extreme shoaling problems in Hatteras Inlet.
After World War II, Hatteras villager Frazier Peele transported cars on a small, wooden ferry boat — three or four autos at a time — from Hatteras village to Ocracoke, according to Outer Banks historian David Stick. Stick says that Peele sold out to the state in 1957, which started up ferry service between the islands.
Until recently, the ferry ran pretty much a straight shot out of the Hatteras Ferry Dock, out into the federal Rollinson Channel, across Hatteras Inlet, and into the Ferry Docks on south Ocracoke.
Although there were periodic problems with shoaling, traffic continued pretty much normally on this “old” traditional route until the past decade or so — starting perhaps after Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and becoming much worse after Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012.
Since last year, the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferries have run a longer route to avoid the shoaled section of the channel. The “new” route takes them out Rollinson Channel toward the inlet, where they make a sharp right turn and loop out into the Pamlico Sound before returning to the Ocracoke Ferry Dock.
This has an economic impact on both Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.
For instance, the ferry now takes an hour or more, instead of about 40 minutes. That’s 10 fewer ferries making the trip each day, and, especially in the summer, Ocracoke depends on day-trippers to keep its economy humming. The ferry lines are long in the summer season, and many visitors get to the Hatteras Terminal, hear they will have to wait an hour and a half or two hours and turn around and go back north.
It costs NCDOT as much as $250,000 more per month in labor and fuel to run the long route.
So the Ferry Division commissioned a feasibility study to look at alternatives to the current situation. Volkert, Inc., of Raleigh is producing the study for the state, which will be completed at the end of the year.
About 50 people attended the meeting on Monday evening on Ocracoke, and another 10 or so came to the Hatteras village meeting, where attendees were outnumbered by ferry officials, employees of the consulting firm, two county commissioners — Warren Judge and Allen Burrus — and reporters.
Large boards lined the walls of the meeting room in Hatteras at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, each one with information on the findings of the feasibility study thus far.
Five alternatives were considered by the consultants, with one — the passenger-only ferry — showing the most promise.
The alternatives are:
- Returning to the shorter route. Drawbacks are that the channel is unstable and funds for dredging are limited. The recommendation is to monitor the channel and pursue the original route if conditions change.
- Increased departures on the current route. Seventeen more departures a day would be needed to return the ferry route to its 2012 level. This would add to channel congestion, and three more boats would be needed at a capital cost of $36 million. The conclusion is that the alternative is not financially feasible.
- Encouraging walk-on traffic. An additional 50,000 passengers would be needed to walk on to get back to 2012 levels. There are limited passenger amenities and terminal improvements would be needed on both sides of the route. Buses could be placed on existing vessels but service would not be as attractive.
- Passenger-only ferry to Ocracoke Ferry Dock. This doesn’t take advantage of vessel speed, and would raise concerns about channel congestion. It would also require transit service to Ocracoke village.
- Passenger-only ferry to Silver Lake Harbor. One vessel could return passenger counts to 2010 levels. Surveys indicate that one fourth of current riders would take a passenger ferry. Terminal improvements would be required –temporarily and long-term — on Hatteras and Ocracoke. And the cost per passenger would be lower than on vehicle ferries.
The study shows that the Ferry Division could begin passenger ferry service in 2017 with either one boat that carries 150 passengers or two boats that carry 80 passengers each.
Currently, the consultants say, the two-boat option has been favored in ongoing meetings with various federal, state and local officials. The two-boat option allows the Ferry Division to run both in peak tourist months and drop back to one in parts of the spring and fall.
The passenger ferries could accommodate 125,000 passengers a year. That could add $500,000 in new visitor spending the first year.
The current plan — and the consultants warn that the plan is constantly changing as a result of meetings with federal, state and local officials and citizens — envisions four departures a day from each side. They could be at 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. from Hatteras and 10 a.m. and 1, 4, and 8 p.m. from Ocracoke. The cost for riding would be $15 per person and reservations could be made online.
The vessels would be catamaran or hydrofoil boats that travel at about 28 to 32 knots and would take about an hour to make the crossing. The boats would have to slow down some in choppy seas, which would probably occur with some regularity in a channel out in the sound.
Once on Ocracoke, the plan envisions and an open-trolley style transit circulator, run by Hyde County, that would take visitors around the village. The “dock-to-dock” transit would also take passengers to the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry dock at the north end of the island, making stops along the way at beaches and the pony pens.
Infrastructure improvements would be needed in Hatteras and Ocracoke villages.
In Hatteras, a passenger waiting area would be added to the terminal. The large parking lot for employees and visitors would now be primary visitor parking — with 90 spaces. The plan envisions using the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum lot for secondary parking with a shuttle running to it. New employee parking lots would be built.
In Ocracoke, a temporary passenger terminal would be constructed, and a new passenger terminal and docking area would eventually be needed. Trolleys would have to be acquired and shelters would have to be built along the route.
The plan by Volkert calls for completing environmental documentation and permitting, planning and developing much of the ferry infrastructure, designing and constructing a transit system on Ocracoke with shelters, and beginning advertising in 2016.
Ferries would start running in 2017, and planning for long-term, permanent infrastructure will begin with permanent terminals completed in 2020. Volkert’s long-term plan takes the ferry implementation into 2037 with additional vessels, parking, and services along the way.
The beginning project is projected to cost $10.9 million, including $5.5 million for a vessel, $1.4 million for a Hatteras terminal, $3.6 million for an Ocracoke terminal, and $400,000 for a transit system.
Operating costs are estimated at $1.76 million — $1.3 million for the vessel and $460,000 for the transit system. Revenue is estimated at $1.25 million — $940,000 from ferry fare and $310,000 from transit fares.
For the most part, folks are curious and receptive.
A passenger-only ferry would be attractive to many visitors who don’t want to wait in line for the vehicle ferry and worry about driving around in congested Ocracoke village. On a pretty day, it would be a nice ride down the sound on a ferry with amenities such as spacious interior and deck seating, food, and a bar.
The added visitors, if it all works out, would be a boost to the Ocracoke economy.
Many react to the passenger-only ferry idea with what they call “guarded” or “cautious” optimism.
There are many questions to be answered, problems to be solved, and issues to be addressed. Here are just a few of them:
- How would the unpredictable weather and sea conditions on the sound affect the ferry trip?
- What do you do with all those folks on Ocracoke if they get over there and can’t get back because of the weather?
- What will adding all these folks and trolleys do to the congestion in Ocracoke? To the ambience of the village?
- Will a family of four pay $60 to ride the passenger ferry or would they rather ride in their car for free, even with a wait?
- Will the General Assembly fund the project?
Even if all of these questions are satisfactorily answered, not everyone is convinced that the Ferry Division is taking the right approach to the stubborn and persistent shoaling in Hatteras Inlet.
“It’s not the answer to our problems as a community,” said Rudy Austin, president of the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association who worked for the Ferry Division for 30 years and was a captain on the Hatteras-Ocracoke route. “I wish the federal government and the state would get the short route opened back up for the benefit of all users — visitors, residents, charter fishermen, the Coast Guard.”
The short route worked for decades, Austin said, and he thinks it can again. He says that if the dredges get out of the dynamics of the inlet and move slightly inshore, they could create a channel with some staying power.
“I know it can be done,” he said this week.
Austin is not alone. Others, especially watermen, agree with him.
And, they all note that the shoaling isn’t just a problem for the ferries. It’s a problem for Hatteras commercial, charter, and recreational fishermen, for visiting boaters, and for the U.S. Coast Guard, which must be able to get its boats in and out of the inlet for search and rescue missions.
Right now, the shoaling problem in the inlet is critical in an area from the Ocracoke Ferry Dock to the inlet gorge area. This area is not used by the ferries anymore, but it is used by boats going out of the inlet from Hatteras village — including commercial, charter, and recreational fishermen, visiting boaters, and the Coast Guard.
It is also located in a “no man’s land” that apparently falls out of state and federal maintenance responsibility and, though the length of the problem area is short and the funding needed is small, no one is stepping up to get the dredging done.
Meanwhile, boat captains are bumping bottom, risking injury and damage to their boats, and the Coast Guard is about to remove the channel markers because the area is too dangerous to transit.
The use of the channel by the Coast Guard for search and rescue is at risk.
The Ferry Division and boat captains are spending money on extra fuel for the short route — lots of money.
Austin notes that decades ago, the state invested in building a transportation corridor of bridges and ferries along the coast to increase tourism and improve coastal economies.
“That connected us all up, and that’s the way we got to where we are today,” Austin says.
That corridor was threatened on Hatteras Island, but now that the Bonner Bridge is going forward and other erosion issues have been addressed along Highway 12, things have improved.
Hatteras Inlet is a weak link now in the corridor and should be addressed by dredging an improved channel — to benefit all users. And, in the long run, supporters of this solution say it will be cheaper than paying for extra fuel on the long route and passenger-only ferries and infrastructure.
Restoring a reliable short route, they say, is the real “win-win” situation.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Click here to see a presentation by Volkert, Inc. on the passenger-only ferry alternative for the Ferry Division’s Hatteras-Ocracoke route.
