Neil
Voyager
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on Feb 11, 2013 22:09:36 GMT -8
I think Dane is right about the 1990 Vesuvius Queen and Nimpkish service; I can remember thinking what a proverbial drop in the bucket those two vessels offered. After spending the money on emergency docks, there has been so much work down on the mountainsides that the service has never been necessary... so far.
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Post by Ferryman on Feb 11, 2013 23:09:17 GMT -8
I think Dane is right about the 1990 Vesuvius Queen and Nimpkish service; I can remember thinking what a proverbial drop in the bucket those two vessels offered. After spending the money on emergency docks, there has been so much work down on the mountainsides that the service has never been necessary... so far. Neil is right, obviously due to all of the upgrades done to the Sea to Sky highway for the Olympics, it's probably quite unlikely that we'll see a major washout like in the past. However, I remain fairly skeptical on that. Those are some steep mountains that the highway runs along, and they see no shortage of rain along there in the winter months. The section of highway where it's still two lanes basically right in Porteau Cove has always had a bad reputation for rock slides. The chunks missing from the pavement even today are still quite evident. Before the Olympics, there was a pretty decent sized rock slide there that closed the highway for a Few days. I remember this quite well since I was living in Squamish at the time, and was about to head to Kelowna. I had to take the Duffy Lake Road via Pemberton/Lilloet in order to get around the slide. On another note, I've often wondered where that Porteau Dock came from in the BC Ferries system. We already know that the new(er) dock at Darrel Bay is actually the old dock from Prince Rupert. WCK has posted a few photos over the years which show a similar structure at Swartz Bay. However the timing of the removal of the old Berth 2/3 at Swartz Bay doesn't really make sense with the timing of the re-construction of the structure at Porteau Cove. I guess the current Berth 3, was built around the early 80's? Here's a look at the structure I had in mind at Swartz Bay, which is what was the old Berth 2, which is located where Berth 3 is today. www.flickr.com/photos/41465870@N04/4198776427/
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Post by Mike C on Feb 12, 2013 0:00:02 GMT -8
WCK has posted a few photos over the years which show a similar structure at Swartz Bay. However the timing of the removal of the old Berth 2/3 at Swartz Bay doesn't really make sense with the timing of the re-construction of the structure at Porteau Cove. I guess the current Berth 3, was built around the early 80's? Here's a look at the structure I had in mind at Swartz Bay, which is what was the old Berth 2, which is located where Berth 3 is today. www.flickr.com/photos/41465870@N04/4198776427/ I believe the berth photographed is currently located on the North Arm of the Fraser River, north of Sea Island on the Vancouver side, west of the Arthur Lang Bridge and Vancouver Transit Center. I'm on my phone so I can't look it up at the moment, but if you go on Google Earth, you will see it. It is not attached to any roadway, and is no longer in use (if it ever was in that location).
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SolDuc
Voyager
West Coast Cyclist
SolDuc and SOBC - Photo by Scott
Posts: 2,055
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Post by SolDuc on Feb 13, 2013 9:44:17 GMT -8
I believe the berth photographed is currently located on the North Arm of the Fraser River, north of Sea Island on the Vancouver side, west of the Arthur Lang Bridge and Vancouver Transit Center. I'm on my phone so I can't look it up at the moment, but if you go on Google Earth, you will see it. It is not attached to any roadway, and is no longer in use (if it ever was in that location). Checked that out and there is actually a ferry berth there. But it's a really weird thing since it has no wingwalls or anything, and as stated above is not attached to any roadway.
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Mill Bay
Voyager
Long Suffering Bosun
Posts: 2,886
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Post by Mill Bay on Feb 13, 2013 20:53:36 GMT -8
It it's the same berth I have seen, it has most likely only ever been used for barge loading. There are actually a couple similar berths at various points along the river. Not exactly the same constructions of course, but usually located at places where there is some sort of bulk loading facility where they would occasionally have a need to drive trucks or equipment onto barges to be 'ferried' to other sites.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2013 9:43:17 GMT -8
The original Porteau Emergency ferry dock was constructed of rather large glue lam beams attached to a pontoon .... it didn't last long. After a few northerly gales some of the beams self destructed. I was told that the replacement came from Swartz Bay.
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Post by Dane on Nov 6, 2016 17:33:00 GMT -8
Woodfibre ferry service should be resuming, I assume, in the medium-term future. An LNG plant is mostly approved and funded for the shuttered old Woodfibre site. A quick snippet from the projects websites states there will be a "passenger only service." (http://askwoodfibrelng.ca/when-will-ferry-service-start/)
Curious how they'll deal with larger requirement of vehicles and parts, etc? Perhaps the small size of the plant will make barge use more economical.
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Post by chinook2 on Dec 10, 2016 4:09:04 GMT -8
historical footnote....... it was Saltspring Queen and Nicola doing the shuttle......
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Post by roeco on Dec 10, 2016 19:37:38 GMT -8
Woodfibre ferry service should be resuming, I assume, in the medium-term future. An LNG plant is mostly approved and funded for the shuttered old Woodfibre site. A quick snippet from the projects websites states there will be a "passenger only service." (http://askwoodfibrelng.ca/when-will-ferry-service-start/) Curious how they'll deal with larger requirement of vehicles and parts, etc? Perhaps the small size of the plant will make barge use more economical. I believe that Woodfibre to Technically was a passenger only service was it not, sure it could take some vehicles for use at Woodfibre but very few. 7 I think technically!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2016 21:19:27 GMT -8
Since the mill closed in 2006 and the old ferry dock self destructed, a large number of people have been transported to the site by crew boats(which are able to carry some cargo). Tug and ramp barge service has taken care of the larger vehicles and materials required.The old rail barge ramp is still there. There has been lots of discussion about a ferry-type of service but it would require a new ferry dock, a ferry, and getting access to Darrell Bay. If I was a betting man, I'd bet on passenger vessel(s) maybe running from Darrell Bay? as well as tug and barge service from other locations. We should know soon if construction starts next year sometime. For "roeco", the Garibaldi II was licenced for 400 passengers. It was definitely a vehicle ferry too and there were only two sailings a day when we didn't carry vehicles due to passenger numbers. We had many dangerous cargo sailings carrying tanker trucks of chemicals, gasses, fuels and other dangerous goods. We carried a lot of vehicles...
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skooba
Oiler (New Member)
Posts: 1
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Post by skooba on Jan 10, 2017 10:13:28 GMT -8
Just bringing this one back to life... any idea who owns the parking lot and area around the Darrell bay dock?
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