NCDOT Awarded Federal Grant to Study Second Ferry Maintenance Facility

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division is looking into whether a second vessel maintenance facility could improve service to customers.

Currently, the NCDOT Ferry Division has one maintenance facility, the Manns Harbor Shipyard in Dare County.

The new planning study—funded by a $400,000 Federal Transit Administration grant, plus a $100,000 match from Ferry Division—will explore the conceptual site design for a larger, better equipped depot-level maintenance facility at the Cherry Branch Terminal in Craven County where state crews could perform in-water maintenance so boats could be returned to service quicker.

“The [current] shipyard has limited capacity and creates challenges in meeting the Ferry Division’s needs for required regular maintenance and emergency repairs to vessels,” said Jed Dixon, the division’s interim director. “Establishing a second facility would allow for timely maintenance and continued rehabilitation of the fleet. This would make the ferry system more resilient and productive, and help us get boats back in service faster so we can better serve our customers.”

A second facility could also support the local marine industries and student trades training, as there is a robust workforce in central coastal North Carolina, Dixon said.

The North Carolina grant was part of $220 million in grants the FTA announced this week, as part of an effort in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modernize the nation’s ferry systems. North Carolina was awarded a grant through the FTA’s Ferry Service for Rural Communities Program, which provides competitive funding to states for ferry service in rural areas. A total of 13 grants were awarded Thursday through the rural program and the agency’s passenger ferry grant program.