The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) officially opened the Ron Cowan Central Bay Maintenance and Operations Facility at Alameda Point last Thursday. 

Construction began in 2016. Overaa Construction and Power Engineering Construction teamed up with KPFF Consulting Engineers and ROMA Design Group to design and build the facility. 4Leaf, Inc. oversaw the facility’s construction. 

Built to streamline WETA’s ferry service operation, make routine maintenance and repairs of the vessels more efficient, the $50 million facility will serve as an operations and maintenance hub for WETA’s San Francisco Bay Ferry, as well as an emergency response center. 

Features of the new facility include:

• Marine facility with berthing slips for 12 ferry vessels
• Equipment and working yard that support light repair and maintenance work for WETA’s fleet of vessels
• Dispatch and operations hub
• Fuel facility with a storage capacity of 48,000 gallons

Site improvements include expansion of the San Francisco Bay Trail and a harbor seal float to prevent habitat displacement.

The facility is named after Ron Cowan, a lifelong champion for expanded ferry service in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Over the years, Cowan helped found the Harbor Bay ferry service, chaired the blue ribbon task force that called for the creation of WETA and chaired the Water Transit Task Force.