Alaska again seeks American shipyards to build new oceangoing Tustumena replacement ferry
- Alaska Beacon
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
New mainline ship would sail the longest, most remote state ferry route in the United States, with a range of 4,000 nautical miles
By James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
After more than a decade of planning, design and false starts, the state of Alaska is once more attempting to build its first new mainline ferry in decades.
On Jan. 23, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities began advertising for shipyards interested in building a replacement for the Tustumena, which sails between Homer, Kodiak and Unalaska on the longest, most remote state ferry route in the United States.
The new ship must be built in the United States and is expected to cost well over $325 million, based on a prior estimate provided by the state to the federal government and inflation since that 2022 projection.
The current bid listing states only that the “engineer’s estimate is greater than $100,000,000.”
The final operational requirements include a 330-foot-long ship with a range of 4,000 nautical miles, and a capacity of 250 passengers and 28 crew plus 58 vehicles.
The invitation to bid calls for the ship to be complete by the end of January 2029.
Bids are due by 2 p.m. May 28.
The federal government is expected to pay for the majority of the project, which has been a state priority since 2013.
The Tustumena, variously nicknamed “Rusty Tusty” and “Trusty Tusty,” entered service in 1964.
The years and the rough seas of the North Pacific have taken their toll: In 2012, age-related problems sidelined the ship for months, cutting Kodiak off from the state road system. After an extended stay in drydock, it returned to service, but the experience caused the state to begin planning and designing a replacement.
Plunging oil prices and vanishing state revenue caused legislators and then-Gov. Bill Walker to slash the state’s budget, which put the replacement project on the back burner, and the Tustumena remained in service.
In 2016, part of the ship’s hull cracked badly enough that the Alaska Marine Highway System stopped sailing it in strong storms.
Subsequent repairs allowed the ship to return to full service, but the state renewed its efforts to replace the Tustumena. In late 2018, just as Walker was leaving office, the state signaled that it would soon begin soliciting bids for a replacement ship.
“The request for proposals will be issued in January 2019 and a ship builder should be selected by June-July 2019,” DOT said at the time.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who entered office in December 2018, froze the Tustumena replacement project and similar large-cost state projects as part of a new round of cost-cutting, and in his first years, he significantly cut the budget of the state ferry system, precluding it from going out to bid. By the end of 2021, the Dunleavy administration had relaxed its position on the Tustumena and named it a priority.
In March 2022, the state finally put the project out to bid, but it received no responses by July and canceled the solicitation.
Ferry system officials said they would start a new bidding process in 2023, but that never came to pass. Plans for new bids in 2024 and 2025 also never came about.
In the meantime, the ship and its propulsion system were repeatedly redesigned, and the Tustumena is now intended to use a diesel-electric drive capable of cruising at 15 knots in moderate, 8-foot seas during the winter, with a maximum speed of 18 knots.
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
