By The Star Staff
Vieques Mayor José “Junito” Corcino Acevedo and Carolina District Sen. Marissa “Marissita” Jiménez Santoni traveled to the city of Morgan, Louisiana recently to evaluate the construction of a new cargo and passenger ferry for maritime transportation between the Ceiba terminal and the offshore island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra.
“As part of our commitment to constantly improving passenger and cargo transportation between Vieques and the marine terminal at the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Base, we traveled to the City of Morgan to evaluate the construction of the first of four ferry vessels,” the mayor said. “This vessel, with capacity for 393 passengers in addition to cargo, will be ready by the end of this year for the benefit of our people.”
The new ferry is to be powered by MTU 4000 engines that will provide a sailing speed of around 15 knots. It will also have the capacity to transport 300 tons of cargo.
Louisiana-based Conrad Shipyard is in charge of building the four new vessels at a cost of $70 million, from federal funds. When the new boats enter service, the transportation fleet serving Vieques and Culebra will increase to nine.
“The new boat will be ready in December of this year, and then, every six months, they will deliver a vessel to us until the four new ones that will be the backbone of the maritime transportation service are completed, thus further improving the service,” Corcino Acevedo said.
Jiménez Santoni added that the inspection visit was “important as part of the evaluation processes for the Conrad Shipyard company to comply with the parameters established in the contract.”
“The visit to the shipyard highlighted that the first of these four vessels will be ready by the end of 2024 and entering service, [once] passing the Coast Guard tests, very soon after,” she said.
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