WETA Awarded $4.4 Million Federal Grant to Rehab Ferry Terminal in Alameda

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2020 – The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) today announced that it has been awarded a $4.45 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to rehabilitate its 29-year-old Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal.

The competitive grant was awarded through FTA’s Passenger Ferry Grant Program. The $4.45 million awarded by FTA will be matched with $1.9 million in local funds WETA has secured via Alameda County’s Measure B and BB transportation sales tax and State Transit Assistance funds.

The project includes building and installing a new passenger float and refurbishing the pilings and ramping system at the terminal, which links San Francisco Bay Ferry service to Oakland, San Francisco and South San Francisco.

"This grant provides a crucial capital infusion to help us rebuild the aging Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal," said Jim Wunderman, chair of WETA's Board of Directors. "WETA has made significant investments in Alameda in recent years as we seek to build a world-class ferry system in Bay Area. Thank you to Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Representative Barbara Lee for their support for Bay Area ferry investment at the federal level."

WETA opened its Ron Cowan Central Bay Operations and Maintenance Facility in West Alameda in 2018. The building represented the first new vertical construction at the former Naval Air Station Alameda since its closure.

WETA also contributed $2 million to the construction of the new Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal, which will begin hosting San Francisco Bay Ferry service in the coming months. More information about the future of Alameda ferry service can be found at seaplaneshift.com.

The passenger float currently used at Main Street Alameda was built in the 1960s and put in place when the City of Alameda opened the terminal in 1991. Major repairs to the ramping system at Main Street Alameda were last completed in 2007. The City transferred the terminal to WETA in 2011 as the agency took over East Bay ferry service under legislative mandate.