King County Executive, Governor celebrate Colman Dock project and our future home

As crews continue to build King County Water Taxi’s future home, Executive Dow Constantine, Gov. Jay Inslee and other transportation leaders took time last week to celebrate the progress of the Seattle Multimodal Terminal at Colman Dock Project.

The Executive was one of the keynote speakers at a celebration inside Colman Dock, the state’s busiest terminal, which overlooks the site of the Water Taxi’s future Passenger Only Ferry (POF) facility.

Executive Constantine – who has long made improving mobility throughout the region one of his priorities – spoke about the Water Taxi’s role in getting people out of their cars and out of gridlock.

“When we talk about transit, we mean everything: buses and trains and light rail and van pools and water taxis,” he said. “Our new passenger-only ferry terminal here at Pier 50 represents a big step in improving the experience of the ever-increasing number of riders crossing the Puget Sound.”

Our POF terminal represents the first step in the Washington State Department of Transportation’s five-year effort to replace the aging and seismically vulnerable dock. The job required us to temporarily move our facilities from the south end of Colman Dock to the north end during construction.

“If you were out there on those roads this morning,” Constantine told the crowd of about 70, “I think you can understand why people might choose a highly reliable, and also picturesque, alternative to sitting in traffic.”

When our $34 million terminal and passenger facility – about three-quarters of which was paid for via federal grants while the King County Council directed funding to cover the rest – is completed next year, riders will be able to wait comfortably in a new, 5,000-square-foot facility. It will offer:

Ticket vending machines
Queuing areas
Customer information systems
Direct access to the Colman Dock terminal via an elevated pedestrian walkway once the state’s replacement is complete

In addition to Constantine, Gov. Inslee, WSDOT Assistant Secretary Amy Scarton, state Rep. Judy Clibborn and Bardow Lewis, Vice Chairman of The Suquamish Tribe, all spoke about the importance of a new Colman Dock (watch the video above).

After the remarks, the crowd walked down to the construction site near our passenger facility on the south side, where attendees got to sign an actual steel pile that will be driven into the ground to help support our future home. How cool is that?