PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough’s long-awaited ice-breaking ferry is more than half built and on track for an on-time delivery in spring 2010.

“It looks phenomenal,” Borough Manager John Duffy said Friday, fresh from a visit to Ketchikan where the ship is being built.

Duffy, Borough Mayor Curt Menard and assembly members Lynne Woods, Pete Houston and Mark Ewing went to Ketchikan last week for the yearly Alaska Municipal League Conference. While there, Duffy said, they swung by Alaska Ship and Drydock to see the ferry, dubbed the M/V Susitna. “Lynne Woods was saying, ‘Geez, it’s bigger than I thought,’” Duffy said.

Unlike the last time he visited the yards a couple years ago, Duffy said the M/V Susitna is actually starting to look like a ship with both keels of the catamaran-style hull nearing completion.

“Both sides are lined up, the modules, and they’re putting all the stuff inside, like the gear boxes and the engines and stuff,” Duffy said. “In a few months, probably about six months, they’ll have it together and in the water.”

But even after it’s in the water, there’s still much to be done.

“You put the ship together, put it in the water, and then it shifts, everything shifts,” Duffy said. The shifting necessitates realignments to various pieces of the vessel.

The M/V Susitna is a prototype for a ship the U.S. Navy is considering as a landing craft. The Navy is picking up the tab for its construction. Once it’s built, the Borough will own and operate it and the Navy will monitor the vessel’s performance.

The plan is to make regular runs across the Knik Arm between Port MacKenzie and Anchorage. The Susitna will be capable of hauling 14 to 20 cars and more than 100 people each trip. The ferry is designed as an all-seasons craft with ice-breaking capabilities for the months when the arm ices up.

All this is contingent upon getting landings set up on both sides. Duffy said the Borough has long had a spot for the ferry ready at Port MacKenzie. Where to land the ferry in Anchorage has, at times, sparked controversy.    

The Borough prefers a spot at the end of Ship Creek. Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich has said he’d like the ferry to dock at the Port of Anchorage.

Lately, Duffy said, those concerns have seemed to taper off.

Rather than outright opposition from Anchorage to a Ship Creek landing, he said, “It’s more of a, ‘Well, we just want to make sure this works properly and that all of our concerns are dealt with.’ And that’s fair.”

Duffy said the Borough is moving ahead with plans to land ferry at Ship Creek. Paperwork has been submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If the Borough clears the Corps’ review, it will move ahead to the next phase — a requests for bids to design and build the landing.

Even the roadblocks resistance on the Anchorage end has thrown in the Borough’s path, Duffy said it’s possible the ferry will be able to go into service upon delivery. But it’ll be close, a situation that gives him no small amount of stress.

“I’ve got the gray hair, now it’s falling out,” Duffy said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.