USS Arizona tour gets
grant for new boats
Visitors will board new, safer shuttle ferry boats to get across Pearl Harbor to the USS Arizona Memorial.
The U.S. Transportation Department gave a $5.15 million federal grant to the state to buy four new ferry boats, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said yesterday at the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center. The grant is part of a total of $10 million in federal funding for the boats.
The ferries are the only way for visitors to get to the USS Arizona Memorial, which is a grave site to about half of the 2,390 people who died on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked before World War II.
"These ferries are critical in serving veterans, their families and friends," Mineta said. "Keeping these ferries in good order is the least we can do to ensure a visit to cherish forever."
The Navy controls the operations and maintenance of five ferry boats, three of which are more than 20 years old and two more than 10 years old.
"The Navy is holding together and using boats that have long passed their prime," Mineta said. "We're here to make sure that all Americans have a safe and reliable visit."
The boats have been through years of wear and tear, said Daniel Martinez, park historian with the National Park Service. Two boats are used at a time to shuttle more than a million visitors to the Arizona Memorial for 362 days out of the year.
The state Transportation Department will be working with the Navy to build the ferries, which are in the design phase, said Capt. Ronald Cox.
The new ferries will be equipped to hold 150 people, the same capacity as the current boats, but will use clean fuel technology that will be more environmentally and economically efficient, Cox said.
The new ferries will also have a safer design for embarking and exiting, said Martinez.
The state Transportation Department also received a $7.46 million grant for ferry landing development projects in Maui, Lanai and Molokai to improve interisland transportation, said Mineta.
www.nps.gov/usar
