Ferry Terminal Arriving Late And Costing Millions More

 By Ronald Drenger


Construction of a new ferry terminal at the World Financial Center is scheduled to be completed in January 2007, six months later than previously expected, and will cost an additional $13.5 million, the Port Authority said.

Janet Cox, general manager of ferry transportation for the authority, told Community Board 1's Battery Park City Committee on Dec. 6 that construction problems had caused the delay.

The New York company that had been chosen to build the terminal's barge "couldn't meet our standards," she said. "We had to terminate the contract and move fabrication to Ingleside, Texas."

The construction difficulties also increased the project's cost by nearly 25 percent to $69 million, Cox said. The Port Authority is financing the project.

Ferry service to and from Battery Park City is now being operated out of a temporary terminal located about 400 feet north of the spot where the new terminal will go.

The new terminal will have five ferry slips, compared to two slips in the previous terminal, and a larger passenger waiting area with heating in winter, seating, restrooms and a food kiosk. The terminal's completion, originally scheduled for this year, had already been delayed until next spring.


The barge is being constructed in Texas by Kiewit Offshore, and is about 20 percent complete, Cox said. In June it will be towed to Brooklyn to be outfitted, and in October it will be brought to its mooring spot in front of the World Financial Center. After the installation of electricity and utility connections, the terminal should be ready to open in early January 2007.

Preparatory construction work that is being done on the waterfront was scheduled to end last month and to resume April 15, Cox said.

Anothony Notaro, a member of CB1's Battery Park City Committee, said he was surprised by the 2007 opening date. "You'd like to have any construction in the neighborhood finalized," he said. "Nobody likes to have a construction project in limbo. But I don't know if it will really affect us too much because the temporary terminal is operating nicely and everyone seems to have adjusted."