Harrop ferry moved to dry dock
by Greg Nesteroff - Nelson Star
posted Mar 3, 2011 at 2:00 PM
A pontoon barge is taking the place of the Harrop cable ferry until March 28 while the vessel undergoes upgrades.
Elgin McKillop, marine superintendent with ferry contractor Western Pacific Marine, says the ferry will be in dry dock at Sunshine Bay and have about 75 feet of new bottom plating put on — work conducted once every five years.
“That’s a big job,” he says. “All of the existing steel has to be cut out, and new steel put in place and welded. The vessel has quite a long history, and it’s time that plating gets renewed.”
Some plumbing issues around the fuel tank and other minor things will also be addressed.
In the ferry’s place, they’ll operate six pontoon sections bolted and clamped together to make one contiguous barge of about 100 by 24 feet.
“It stays on the cable the same as the other ferry, but we’ll use a small vessel to push it back and forth instead of having its own machinery on board,” McKillop says. “The ramps are connected to the small vessel which has a hydraulic pump to lift and lower them.”
The barge can handle about 12 regular-size cars, versus 26 for the ferry, so they’re encouraging residents to car pool. Crossing time should remain about five minutes, however.
“It’s pretty much the same,” McKillop says.
“It goes on the cable so nobody has to steer it or make sure they get in the right place. The cable goes from point A to point B, and so does the barge.”
The ferry was expected to be taken out of service early Thursday and should be back on the Monday morning following spring break.
McKillop says they met with Harrop and Procter residents beforehand “and they were very helpful. They had some good ideas and I’ve certainly appreciated working with them.”
The ferry runs round the clock on Kootenay Lake between Longbeach and Harrop.
From The Nelson Star