Trisha Shanks
Arrow Lakes News
Following a run-in with a submerged log, one of the propellers on the MV Columbia, Waterbridge’s newer, larger ferry was seriously damaged and the vessel had to be brought in to Nakusp for repairs. The accident stymied vehicle traffic for the better part of two days last week. Those traveling from Galena or Shelter Bay waited for hours to cross and when they did cross, it took twice as long.
During the outage, Mayor Karen Hamling wrote on her Facebook page,“The small ferry is running. The larger ferry, the MV Galena has been sitting and waiting for inspection by Transport Canada since October. Until it is inspected it can’t go in the water (as a replacement.) Don’t understand why it has taken over six months and still no inspection. Just heard about that and so will be contacting our MP. The MV Columbia should be back in service on Sunday.”
Mayor Karen Hamling spoke with Hugh Eberle with the Ministry of Highways in Nelson the morning after the accident occurred. Everly told her that the replacement ferry was on the way and expected to be in place by noon. It was running by 3 p.m. Thursday and made trips until the wee hours to get all of the waiting traffic moved. There was a delay with getting the older ferry in operation as a replacement because the ramps to load vehicles had been constructed to capacitate the larger vessel. Modifications were made to make the MV Galena work and traffic was able to resume.