The long-awaited project to build a replacement for the 61-year-old Alaska Marine Highway System ferry Tustumena was put out to bid on Friday.
Without fanfare, the bid announcement was posted on the State of Alaska Online Public Notices website, stating that sealed bids for furnishing “all labor, materials, equipment and performing all work” on the Tustumena Replacement project would be accepted until 2 p.m. on May 28.
“The project consists of replacing the M/V Tustumena with a vessel that provides greater capacity, modernized safety features, increased seaworthiness, and enhanced passenger comfort,” states the announcement, which gives a project completion date of Jan. 31, 2029.
The project is expected to replace the existing 296-foot, ocean-going ferry that serves the region from Homer, Seldovia, Kodiak and out the Aleutian Island chain with a new 330-foot, diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system vessel that will provide more passenger and vehicle capacity.
As for cost, Friday’s bid solicitation simply states that the engineer’s estimate for the project is “greater than $100,000,000.”
In February of 2025, an AMHS presentation to the state House Transportation Committee gave a cost estimate of $310 million.
Most of the funding for the TRV project has come through Rural Ferry Program grants via the Federal Transit Administration received through September 2024, funded largely through the 2023 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that had significant involvement by Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
The federal government in 2024 also approved the state’s use of an Alaska DOT “toll credit” program to satisfy the state’s funding match for the Tustumena and other AMHS capital projects.
This story was originally published by the Ketchikan Daily News.