Steamship Authority Almost Finished with Waterside Terminal Work

Courtesy of Steamship Authority

FALMOUTH – An official from the Steamship Authority has announced that the boat  line is days away from completing the waterside work of its terminal reconstruction project in Woods Hole.

Communications Director Sean Driscoll said their marine contractor’s barge is set to pull out early next week from the last slip that is under construction.

Driscoll said the new slip might not go into use immediately, but that it should be ready for vessels to utilize it sometime soon with the bulk of the work completed.

“It fortifies that whole area for the next fifty years. This is going to be a long-term project and we expect this to last a good half-century. So it was past due but it’s going to increase the reliability and the safety for our operations down there in Woods Hole,” Driscoll said.

Driscoll said the previous slips in Woods Hole were more than 50 years old and the SSA had to spend a lot of time maintaining and fixing the old structures.

The final marine phase of the terminal project began in September 2020, but Driscoll said the project took longer than expected with the unknown terrain that crews encountered when driving piles 100 feet under the surface of the ocean.

The authority will move onto the landside portion of the terminal reconstruction project next, which includes a new terminal building and a new utilities building in Woods Hole that have been designed with the changing climate in mind.

“Those will also be elevated to account for sea level rise and for climate resiliency down there because obviously we’re a water-born organization, so we need to be ready,” Driscoll said.

By Brian Engles, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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