Sullivan: What to do with West Seattle’s Fauntleroy ferry terminal?
May 24, 2022, 8:44 AM | Updated: 9:22 am
Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal (Oran Viriyincy via Flickr)
(Oran Viriyincy via Flickr)
It’s time to end the chaos in West Seattle, and I’m not talking about the closed high bridge. I’m talking about the Fauntleroy ferry terminal.
The old terminal needs to go. “It has timber pilings that need to be replaced,” the Washington State Ferries’ Hadley Rodero said. “It is not built to current seismic standards, and it’s also a really small dock. The dock holds 80 cars. The ferries that serve that route carry 124 cars.”
It’s become a nightmare for the neighborhood. Cars lined up and down Fauntleroy. This is the only state ferry dock serviced by a local city street. It really doesn’t work for anyone anymore.
The state has been researching 15 options for replacing the terminal, and Rodero said the final ideas are coming into focus. Some of those ideas had WSF moving the dock out of West Seattle. “Some people had suggested Burien, Des Moines, moving it to downtown Seattle where our Bainbridge and Bremerton routes come into downtown,” she said. “We looked at those and decided those options are just not feasible.”
So the options now only include looking at the existing area. “It’s a variation on different sizes of the dock over the water and different ways to manage the traffic on the city streets,” Rodero said.
Options include a one lane holding area and a double lane holding area along Fauntleroy.
The state is now relying on the public to steer its decisions. There is a virtual open house available for you to look at the options and provide feedback. There are two virtual public meetings: One Tuesday and another on Wednesday.
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