Questions About Guemes Ferry Deck Coating

I have gotten several emails from folks regarding the painting project on the car deck of the ferry and its effects on operations this week.

We recognize that advance notice would have been very helpful, and we know that the wait times this week have been extremely long.

I’m hoping to provide more information about the project; I realize it won’t fix the inconvenience that the work has caused, but I’d like to answer some questions I have been asked.
 
Why are you painting the car deck?
For the safety of our passengers and crew, we are repairing sections of the car deck where the paint has failed. We need the car deck to have a good coating of non-skid this winter.
 
Why now?
We are nearing the end of the peak season, so traffic has slowed down, but there is still good weather.
 
Why didn’t you do the work after hours?
Here’s the thing, we actually did the painting after hours, but the paint needed more time to cure.
 
Why was there no advance notification so that ferry riders could plan ahead?
The original plan was to do this work entirely after hours with only small impacts to ferry traffic by prepping and priming small sections at a time that could cure quickly. Monday night after hours, the paint crew got a little over zealous and decided to get a lot done, including applying the final coat of non-skid. Their hope was that it would be dry by Tuesday morning. However, that was not the case. We sent out a notification and blocked off the areas of wet paint so they wouldn’t get damaged.
 
Since you are carrying fewer vehicles than usual, can you do extra runs to make up for it?

Yes; we are doing extra runs whenever possible to clean up the lines. We did extra runs on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and we will continue to do so the remainder of this week and weekend.
 
Can you run non-stop all day and through the meal breaks?
State law requires that we give our workers breaks; we intend to follow this law. Therefore, with current staffing levels, we are unable to run all day non-stop. However, during the work, we will do as many extra runs as we can.
 
HERE IS ADVANCED NOTICE FOR THE WORK NEXT WEEK:
We now have half of the car deck completed. No work on the painting project will take place today, Thursday, Sept. 20 through Sunday, Sept. 23. Loads will not be limited; the ferry is operating at full capacity.

Painting on the car deck will resume next week (Monday, Sept. 24 through Friday, Sept. 28). We have good weather, and we need to finish up the project.

We will be sectioning off small areas each day. This means that loads will be limited by 2-3 cars most days; at worst, one day we would need to limit loads by about 5 cars.
We will do extra runs when we can. Please allow for extra wait time in line, and arrive early for your desired sailing.

We will do a double 11:15 am run every day next week except Thursday, Sept. 27.
On Thursday, Sept. 27, the lane markings will be re-painted. This paint dries very quickly if applied at 60 degrees, so it will be drivable by 1:00 pm.
 
Note: If you have heavy construction vehicles scheduled to go over to Guemes next week, please call our office so that we can be sure to accommodate.
 
As you all know, we are maintaining on older vessel; therefore, you will see crews performing work, such as painting, on the ferry from time to time. This is a good thing; this work needs to be done. Believe it or not, someone actually asked me if this work is being done to  prove that the ferry is old and needs to be replaced. That is absolutely not the case; we want this vessel to continue to meet the needs of the service until such time a replacement vessel can be built.

-Rachel Rowe