Study: Ferry Boat Frederick Still Needed Despite New Bridge
Washington PA Observer Reporter
21 September 2010
By Scott Beveridge, Staff writer
sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com
FREDERICKTOWN - The Ferry Boat Frederick has proven itself worthy
enough to survive competition from a new bridge when it opens nearby
along the Monongahela River.
A transportation study has determined enough local prison workers will
still need the old ferry to get to work after the new Mon-Fayette
Expressway bridge at Brownsville opens in 2012, Washington County
Commissioner J. Bracken Burns said Monday.
"Contrary to my original belief, it does serve a purpose," Burns said.
Many people voiced opposition to earlier statements by Burns that
Washington County would no longer financially support the ferry after
the bridge opens.
"I was part of the outcry," said John Bower, an owner of Bower
Brother's Lounge at Front and Ferry streets at the Fredericktown
entrance to the boat.
The bar had spearheaded efforts two years ago to paint over graffiti on
the bridge over Ferry Road and also co-sponsored a festival this summer
to save the vessel.
Burns said he changed his mind after the Southwestern Pennsylvania
Commission approved a study that determined there would always be a
need for the ferry. The report contradicted an earlier one that
prompted Burns to say in 2009 the boat was on its way to becoming a
"relic of the past."
"I have changed my mind," Burns said.
"I'm glad to hear him say that," Bower replied.
The 35-ton ferry makes about 200 trips a day, powered by a diesel
engine that drives the boat along underwater cables from Fredericktown
to LaBelle, Fayette County. The 64-foot steel ferry can carry six
motorized vehicles across the 400-foot river channel.
The vessel constructed in 1948 is believed to be the last remaining
such vessel east of the Mississippi River, Fayette Commissioner Vincent
Zapotosky said. It's located in an area that has had a river ferry for
more than 200 years.
Fayette maintains the vessel and pays its four pilots, having spent
$123,913 on the budget in 2009, said Fayette County Manager Warren
Hughes. Washington County taxpayers contribute half the cost to keep
the boat operating for two eight-hour shifts, Monday through Saturday.
The bulk of the traffic on the ferry involves people commuting to and
from their jobs at SCI-Greene near Waynesburg or SCI-Fayette in
LaBelle, Zapotosky said.
The new bridge will connect Centerville with Brownsville nearly 4 miles
downriver and would create a 16-mile detour for nearly 450 prison
workers if the ferry would be dry-docked.
Meanwhile, the counties were to receive a $970,000 federal grant
through the Port of Pittsburgh to refurbish the red, white and blue
mini-barge or purchase a new boat when Burns said the ferry would no
longer be needed. Neither commissioner knows the status now of that
grant.
"I don't know if that money is still there or not," Burns said.