The proposed Knik Arm ferry or Cook Inlet ferry, christened the M/V Susitna would be a year-round passenger and auto ferry across Knik Arm between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie in Alaska. The project is expected to cost $44 million, a fraction of the cost of the more controversial proposed Knik Arm Bridge that would connect the same two communities. A special ice-breaking twin-hull ship was designed by Lockheed-Martin Corporation to serve the route, with capacity for 20 to 28 automobiles and 115 to 150 passengers. It was built by Alaska Ship and Drydock, Inc., in Ketchikan. Design and construction costs were subsidized by the United States Navy which hopes to study the technology for its potential as a new type of expeditionary landing craft, also called an "E-craft". Basic construction of the ferry was completed and it was christened the M/V Susitna in June 2010, but it has not yet been put into service as a ferry. Transit time across Knik Arm is expected to be about 12 minutes in each direction, with a similar amount of time required for loading and unloading. The subsidized one way fare is expected to be in the range of $10 per person or $25 for automobiles.
Read more about Knik Arm Ferry: Timeline
Famous quotes containing the words arm and/or ferry:
“I dreamed of an out-thrust arm of land
Where gulls blew over a wave
That fell along miles of sand....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“This ferry was as busy as a beaver dam, and all the world seemed anxious to get across the Merrimack River at this particular point, waiting to get set over,—children with their two cents done up in paper, jail-birds broke lose and constable with warrant, travelers from distant lands to distant lands, men and women to whom the Merrimack River was a bar.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)