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.