By guest blogger Al Gilson

Here’s a different story about a boat getting flipped over.  No, there are no big headlines about a daring rescue at sea in this story.

Now being built near Longview, the “Sanpoil,” our new ferry vessel for the Keller Route across the Columbia River in eastern Washington reached a major construction milestone on December 11.
For the last several months, workers at the Foss Maritime boat yard have been fabricating this new ferry vessel.  They began by building the frame for the car deck then pieced together the hull frame, followed by the hull plates.  When that phase was completed, the center section, and two outer sections were upside-down on the shop floor.

The next move was to flip the 20,000-pound center section over.  In a process that took two cranes and about 45 minutes, the 56 foot-long component was lifted up, rolled over and placed on a special cradle aboard a multi-axle trailer.

Coming up, the ship builders will attach the bow sections.  (There are two “front ends” on the boat and no stern since it’s a double ended ferry.  Cars and trucks will drive on and off at either end so the boat never has to turn around.)  When those are connected, the center section on the trailer will be 22 feet wide and 116 feet long.  That’s the maximum size that will be able to squeeze along the highways and under any overpasses as it, the two outer sections, the pilot house, and other components are towed from the boat yard to Grand Coulee Dam for final assembly early next year.
The Sanpoil should enter service in mid-2013.

The three sections of the new “Sanpoil” ferry. The center section was placed on the trailer.

Help up by the crane.

Being rolled over to set on the trailer.

The cradle and trailer under the boat.

All done.

By guest blogger Al Gilson

Members of the Washington State Transportation Commission, plus representatives of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and WSDOT pose with a model of the “Sanpoil”—the newly-named Columbia River ferry that is under construction. Left to Right: Commissioners Dan O’Neal, Anne Haley, Tom Cowan; WSDOT Eastern Region Administrator, Keith Metcalf; Tribal Vice-Chair, Ernest Brooks; Tribal Elder, Jeanne Jerrod; Commissioners Philip Parker, Joe Tortorelli, Richard Ford, and Jerry Litt.

There’s another new ferry under construction for the state of Washington and it’s not one of the big ones that plies the salty waters of Puget Sound. This one is a lot smaller but still fills a very important role.

This ferry serves the Keller route across the Columbia River in Eastern Washington, and until this month, was without a name.

On Tuesday, June 19th, the Washington State Transportation Commission officially named the new vessel, “Sanpoil.”

“Sanpoil” is the anglicized form of the name that is applied to the original and current native residents of this area along the Columbia River. The name was chosen to honor the people who have lived on this land and crossed this river for thousands of years.

The Washington State Transportation Commission approves names for state operated vessels. Our agency used a public process to gather a suggested name to be submitted to the Commission. During March 2012, we hosted an interactive website where citizens submitted vessel name suggestions with a supportive statement. We created an information card announcing the naming process, guidelines, and the opportunity to submit suggestions. The cards were distributed to users of the route by the ferry deckhands. We produced a special electronic email newsletter from the WSDOT Regional Administrator to over 1,000 subscribers of our agency’s Eastern Region electronic mailing list.  We also sent out a media release announcing the naming process, guidelines and submittal procedure to print, broadcast, and web contacts within the Eastern Region.

As a result, over 500 suggestions were received.  Out of those, about 200 were within the parameters of the Commission Vessel Naming Guidelines with many duplicate suggestions. We sent those out to our committee of Tribal, Community, and Department representatives who reviewed the list.  At a meeting in late May, the committee met and reached consensus on the name “Sanpoil” to submit to the Transportation Commission.

The Keller Ferry crossing site was one of the most desirable in the whole territory for salmon fishing, and each year a huge trap was built across the Sanpoil River. It is estimated that as many as 400 people gathered in this area at the height of the salmon season.

Several components of new boat are under construction in the Foss Rainier, Oregon shipyard.  Later this fall, the parts will be trucked to Grand Coulee and assembled. The boat is expected to be launched in July 2013.