Emergency Replacement of Ferry Berthing Structures at the Orcas Island Ferry Terminal

Washington State Ferries (WSF) is the largest ferry operator in North America with service between 20 different terminals, including one on Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands. Located between Vancouver Island, Canada and the Washington State mainland, Orcas Island is a community of 4,500 and, as a popular tourist destination, the number of people on the island often doubles. Ferry service through the single slip terminal is the main link for getting onto or off of the island and is considered part of the state highway system. This paper presents the planning, design, and construction of the $3.8 million replacement facilities. All activities were conducted within a very aggressive schedule made possible by a cooperative and simultaneous effort between the designers, the construction managers, the contractor, and the ferry operators. Project features included two phases of temporary vehicle service through the construction zone, new support structures for the transfer span, and new steel wingwalls. One other project feature was an innovative ductile batter pile to cap connection for the transfer span support towers to limit the seismic uplift demand.