Blount Boats wins Casco Bay ferry contract

Blount Boats, Warren, R.I., has been awarded a nearly $3.4 million contract to build a new ferry for Maine's Casco Bay Lines.

The ferry is being built with a Recovery Act stimulus grant awarded Maine in July last year.

Set to enter service in fall 2011, the new vessel is to replace the 65 ft Island Romance, which was built in 1973. The new ferry will be 100 ft long and able to carry 399 passengers -- 100 more than the Island Romance. It will be equipped with electronically controlled diesel engines that meet the latest EPA standards.

Website Mainebiz quotes Paul Pottle, the Maine Department of Transportation's project manager for the ferry, as saying Blount Boats was officially awarded the job Friday after it submitted the lowest bid. It quotes Mr. Pottle as saying the second lowest bid of $4.3 million was from Washburn Doughty & Associates of East Boothbay, Maine, with the third lowest bid being submitted by Steiner Shipyard Inc. of Bayou La Batre, Ala.