Contract Approved For New Steamship Authority Terminal Building

FALMOUTH – After years of debate, the Steamship Authority is finally moving forward with a new terminal building in Woods Hole.

The SSA Board of Governors approved a $32 million contract with Colantonio Inc. of Holliston at their meeting on Tuesday.

Local residents criticized previous versions of the building design because they said it blocked their views of the water.

Barnstable representative on the ferry board, Robert Jones, spoke about the process to this point.

“This has been one of the hardest deals that we’ve had in this whole construction project, is to try to keep everybody happy. The parameters were to keep this low, which means you’re going to build a shoebox, because you can’t have a deep roof on it. The call was to be able to see over the building to the waterfront, and that was impossible to do because we needed to locate that building, and the flood zones, etc etc. It’s a compromise at best,” said Jones.

Concerns were aired by SSA governing board members about the existing property making it difficult for trucks and other large vehicles to execute proper turns. The board agreed to move the planned building to allow for wider access.