Ferries and The Failure of State Government

No doubt, the recent news about the state's four steel electric ferries has been a tangled mess.

Built in 1927, the Klickitat, Illahee, Nisqually and Quinault were recently taken out of service because of hull damage. The following timeline shows some key dates.

The state has kept these boats in service 20 years longer than their life expectancy. While I appreciate the effort of efficiency, it's impossible to accept the lack of funding until 16 years later. Editors at the Everett Herald say it best:

"It was the state's own mismanagement and lack of basic planning that kept these relics working past their useful lifetimes, and it is now incumbent on the state to minimize the economic damage."

But wait, the legislature allocated WSDOT enough money to replace all four vessels in 2003. Three boats were funded from the existing portion of the state's fuel tax (.23 cents) and a fourth was funded from the "Nickel" increase.

Typically, funding is the biggest obstacle in completing transportation projects. But in this case, it appears the failure originates at the implementation level.

Hoping more money would illustrate how important replacing the four ferries is to the legislature, they increased funding to $351 million in 2007. According to the Seattle Times, each vessel would cost about $40 million to replace. This means the WSDOT now has twice the amount of money it needs.

If this were a private firm, you can be sure accountability would be the first order of business. When Boeing announced a six-month delay in production of its new 787 Dreamliner, the company wasted little time in replacing the program chief, Mike Bair. And according to the Seattle Times, Bair was not just some sacrificial lamb:

The removal of Bair, 51, deflects the rocketing career arc of a man seen as a leading candidate to head Boeing's commercial division some day. He led the Dreamliner program from its conceptual stage to the unprecedented sales success before its first flight, now expected next spring.

In today's Everett Herald, Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen says:

At the same time, Hammond should consider firing the state officials responsible for allowing the state to continue to rely on old ferries with worn-out hulls, with no replacements on the horizon, said Haugen, who heads the Senate's Transportation Committee.

But will a few state officials be enough to inoculate the governor, who in 2005, took control of the WSDOT?