The Ticonderoga Ferry finally had to close last Sunday not because of the weather or desire, but because the owners could no longer get insurance to keep the vital link going. But thanks to Dock Doctors of Ferrisburgh, the small, cable-guided barge and the tug that provides its motive power kept going well beyond the mid-December date once given as an estimate of how long that route between Vermont and New York could be maintained.
Dock Doctors first came into the spotlight at an October hearing in Addison on what to do following the Champlain Bridge’s closure. Jeff Provost, the company owner and manager, said he was capable of putting up within days a dock that vehicles could use to reach a ferry; and as for heavy trucks, there were plenty of barges that could accommodate them, and were doing so right now, on the Hudson River.
Fast forward to Tuesday, December 22: the Ticonderoga Ferry is operating. But it wasn’t the preceding weekend, said Chris Girard, who as part of the sales and marketing department was still in the office.
The Ti Ferry route was iced over, Girard said. So Dock Doctors workers cut rectangular grooves in the sheet of ice, then they used their barge and derrick, to which they had added a front blade, to break the ice into slabs. Then the craft shoved the slabs under the edge of the ice pack on both sides.
“The higher, the better,” Girard said of the raised section thus created. “The wall,” as he termed it, blocks wave action, and helps to keep the ferry running smoothly as well as simply running.
Then the company put down two “bubbler lines.” These are underwater pipes that release air from openings every few feet – the same amount of air from each opening – so that the turbulence created by the upwelling bubbles prevents ice from forming. On December 22, the ferry was going back and forth on almost-clear water between two lines of bubble-ups.
Sometimes, Grady said, ice shoved under the pack comes back out when the wind shifts. Their barge traveled back and forth across the lake ahead of the ferry, herding stray ice to the side like a sheepdog keeping its flock in order. At one point, this reporter saw a rectangular block of ice go by the ferry, and wondered where it had come from. Same place to which it was going back, Girard said.
Coming back from New York at about 5 pm, maybe a half dozen vehicles took the ferry to Vermont. (The number on each trip varies with their size; the ferry carries life jackets for 19 adults.) Waiting in line on the Vermont side were 21 vehicles. Clearly the ferry was a lifeline for people who would otherwise had a hard time remaining employed.
Girard said they realize the importance of what they are doing – and the Vermont and New York officials who now consult with them realize that Dock Doctors has a lot more expertise than putting in and taking out summer camp docks. “The ferry is moving hundreds of cars each day,” he said.
By Ed Barna. Vermont Business Magazine.
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