Lack of leadership is turning M/V Susitna into budget buster

“It’s an omnivore. It’s not optimized for any one task, but it has a wide range of tasks it can do, and that’s what makes it useful. It can work in deep seas, it can work in rough waters, it can break ice, it can work in shallow waters and go up to the beach. There’s no other ship in the world that can do that.”

— Lew Madden,

M/V Susitna co-inventor

It sounds like a remarkable ship, doesn’t it? Sadly, there is one very important thing that the M/V Susitna doesn’t seem to be able to do. It can’t provide the leadership necessary to be put into service. That, unfortunately, is up to politicians.

Back in 2009, Alaska Ship and Drydock in Ketchikan started construction of a Navy experimental ship that was designed to be a multitasking, expeditionary landing craft. This is truly a one-of-a-kind design. Its twin hulls sit 12 feet deep in the water and can break through several feet of ice when it’s in catamaran mode. Flip a switch and the center deck is lowered by a pair of 50-horsepower electric motors and the ship transforms into a barge. When the deck is fully lowered, it has enough flotation to raise the two catamaran hulls and the Susitna can draw about four and a half feet of water. This means it can come right up to the beach. Lower the bow door and you can offload tanks, trucks or the family SUV. There is no other ship like it in existence.

Normally, an experimental ship like this would be built, tested and then mothballed by the Navy, but the Mat-Su Borough saw some potential here. This icebreaking catamaran seemed to be just the ticket to be a ferry between Anchorage and Port MacKenzie. Borough officials approached the Navy about pressing its ship into service and a few pen strokes later the M/V Susitna was born. The Navy paid for construction of the ship and the borough received $21 million in federal grant money to help convert it to civilian use and build a terminal. So far, we’ve spent about $12.5 million of that.

Talk about a smoking good deal. We get what’s essentially a free, icebreaking ferry, and all we have to do is build a couple of docks and pay for its operation. So why isn’t it cruising through Cook Inlet?

Well, it seems there is truly no such thing as a free launch (sorry, I couldn’t help myself). This is a landing craft. Picture old newsreel footage of troops and tanks landing on Normandy and you get an idea of what the Susitna was designed to do. Now picture the family minivan splashing into Cook Inlet and sloshing through the mud flats with mom, the kids and Pierre the Labradoodle on board. Obviously, we’re going to need a dock to get people and cars on and off the ferry. So we just build a dock. What’s the big deal? If you take into account our 41-foot tides and the lack of acceptable real estate on the Anchorage side, building a dock becomes a very big deal.

Two independent studies both came to the same conclusion. The best way to get cars and people off the Susitna is to build a floating dock. This would not be the sort of dock you’re used to seeing in most small boat harbors. It would have to be large enough and stable enough to accommodate a lot of traffic and people. The approach would be about 150 feet long and the dock itself would be an additional 150 feet. We’re looking at something the size of a football field secured by pilings that can stand up to a fast moving, ice-choked inlet. We’re also looking at about $40 million ($18 million on the Mat-Su side and $22 million on the Anchorage side). So much for a free ferry.

Still, the big expense — the $80 million ship — has been taken care of. We even received a $21 million grant from Uncle Sam to get us started. What’s the problem?

It appears that part of the problem is the borough didn’t consider things like a $600,000 insurance bill. There’s also fuel, maintenance and personnel. And since we have no place to dock the ferry up here, there’s the cost of storage in Ketchikan. Altogether, the bill could come to $1.3 million per year. We were supposed to be sharing these expenses with Anchorage, but that brings us to the second and largest sticking point.

According to Marc Van Dongen, director of Port MacKenzie, the Mat-Su has been ready to start construction since 2003. It obviously wasn’t for the M/V Susitna, but we’ve been talking about ferry service across the inlet for several decades. Originally, the Anchorage side was going to put the landing by the small boat-launch ramp at the mouth of Ship Creek. That site was decided on by then Anchorage Mayor George Wuerch toward the end of his term. The incoming mayor at that time, one Mark Begich, decided he wanted to move the landing up the inlet by the fuel tank farm. Less room, more mud and the added attraction of really big tanks full of explosive liquid. What’s not to like? It seems the Coast Guard didn’t share Begich’s sense of humor and recommended that the landing not be built there.

Anchorage politicians hemmed and hawed and did what politicians do best — conducted studies and spent money. Mayor Begich became frustrated with the process and eventually pulled out of the partnership just before he left for Washington, D.C., so now all the expenses are left to the Mat-Su Borough.

Several years and a few million dollars later, the new landing site is guess where? That’s right; it’s over by the launching ramp near the mouth of Ship Creek. The Coast Guard is studying the site and will have its results shortly. Thank you for holding.

So to recap. On one side of the inlet we have politicians who were given a free $80 million ferry but don’t want to pay for its operation much less build an $18 million dock. On the other side of the inlet we have politicians who can’t even decide where that dock should be. It looks like we have a ferry that’s all dressed up with literally no place to go.

Lack of leadership is turning this free ship into a real budget buster, but I think I have a solution. It’s time for the people of Anchorage and Mat-Su to take control of the situation.

Everyone reading this should go out today and trade in the family car for a tank. If enough of us do it there will be no need to build $40 million worth of docks. Just pull up to the beach, drop the gate, and off you go. Additionally, rush hour traffic will no longer be a problem, especially if you manage to get a tank that hasn’t had its barrel plugged.

Short of that, it looks like the ferry’s next port will be eBay. It worked for Murkowski’s jet, didn’t it?

Chuck Legge is a freelance political cartoonist who lives in Sutton. His political cartoons, “The World According to Chuck,” are printed in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and other newspapers around the state and nation.