Bremerton-based Art Anderson Associates’ Chief Naval Architect, Andrew K. Bennett, P.E., will lead a team providing water transportation expertise to studies being conducted in Southeast Alaska, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Marina Del Rey, California. All address the expanding need to provide alternate modes of transportation and improving residents’ access to work, services, and recreational activities.

Anderson is working with the prime contractor, Walsh Planning and Development of Juneau, Alaska to prepare the marine portion of the updated Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP). The plan will reassess the 1999 SATP which the firm helped develop. It will incorporate new information from recent environmental impact studies, population and economic trends, increased transportation service demands, changes in vessel technology, new economic development projects, and the new transportation objectives of the State’s new administration.

For the Vancouver Harbour Passenger Ferry Study, Art Anderson Associates is teamed with San Diego’s Transportation Management & Design, Inc. to determine the feasibility of expanded passenger ferry service from communities west, north, and east to downtown Vancouver and the University of British Columbia campus. Potential terminal sites include Bowen Island, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Deep Cove, Belcarra, Ioco, and Port Moody.

The two firms are working with transportation planners and municipal representatives from each community in developing concepts, ensuring that the study team’s work aligns with each community’s plans and expectations. The team narrowed a list of over twenty candidate routes to eight, based on terminal neighborhood demographics and alternate transit modes. Next steps include developing a preliminary operating model for those eight routes identifying estimated operating costs and demand.

The two firms also teamed up for the Marina CoastLink Evaluation in Marina Del Rey, California. The demonstration water shuttle service will be studied with the goal of providing recommendations for the service becoming a permanent feature in Marina Del Rey. The team is working on its analysis and will present alternatives for the water shuttle’s vessels, fuels, docking sites, moorings, landside access, and public amenities to municipal representatives. It is hoped that the water shuttle will be funded as a true transit alternative to access shopping, dining, and recreation around the marina.

For more information reach Art Anderson Associates at (360) 479-5600 or www.artanderson.com.