Steamship Authority photo:
WOODS HOLE – The design of the Steamship Authority’s new Woods Hole Terminal has been scaled back to one story.
The authority’s board of governors approved the design last Tuesday.
The new design is 1,100 square feet smaller and addresses concerns raised by Woods Hole residents over the last few years.
Steamship Authority General Manager Bob Davis said officials listened to residents and community groups while weighing the wants and needs of the Authority to that of the community.
“This ends up striking a balance between the two,” Davis said.
“Hopefully, the groups we have talked with so far seem to be in support of this concept as opposed to the two-story concept that we had.”
The terminal building will include the ticket office, passenger lobby and waiting area, and restrooms.
“We realize that we are going to be residents there along with them so we want to make sure that we are good neighbors,” Davis said.
The smaller terminal building will result in a larger utility building that will be two stories.
“We had to move some of the terminal functions over to a second building, a utility building,” Davis said.
The utility building will replace one that is currently onsite. The new building would include an employee locker room, break room and restrooms.
Architects will begin working on a schematic design for the updated terminal and utility buildings.
The authority will also need to investigate possible permits that have already been received for the project.
“We’ll need to go back and get some changes made to a couple of those permits,” Davis said.
The changes will increase the costs of the project. The utility building was not going to be considered a habitable building and certain elements were going to be left out.
“Now that it is going to be considered a habitable building, we do have to include fire suppression systems and things like that,” Davis said.
To offset costs the Steamship Authority will be installing solar panels on the roof of the terminal building and on the canopies above the bus drop-off and pickup area.
“Our architects and engineers have indicated that about 50 percent of our energy needs for that building can be generated by the solar,” Davis said.
The beginning of construction of the new terminal building is still a couple years away.
“We still have a slip and a half to build,” Davis said. “We are in the middle of rebuilding the second slip and then we have another one the following offseason.”
One construction begins on the new terminal, completion estimates are 12-18 months.
“We a going to be looking at about four or five years before we complete this project,” Davis said.
The door has not been completely closed on the two-story terminal building.
“If we find that getting the permits we need for the [one-story] concept turns out to be a problem then we revert back to the two-story concept that we already have the permits for in order not to delay the project anymore,” Davis said.
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
