If floodwaters on the Cape Fear continue to drop, Elwell ferry will reopen Monday.
Ken Clark of the N.C. Department of Transportation said Elwell Ferry between Kelly and Council will once again make its on-demand runs across the channel, if the river drops to 6.5 feet.
“It’s been up for some time, due to the heavy rains upstream,” Clark said. “We have had quite a few calls, and are as anxious as anyone else for it to reopen.”
For some travellers, the ferry cuts 20 miles off their journeys between the east and west banks of the Cape Fear. The ferry is the only river crossing between Elizabethtown and Black Rock (NC 11), and is regularly used by commuters, tourists and other motorists.
When the ferry opens Monday, a new captain will be at the helm.
Stacy Young of Buckhead was the successful bidder to run the ferry. The state opted to go for a private contractor last year in an attempt to save money. The bid was for just over $50,000, and Young will be required to meet the same standards as the sate when operating the ferry.
Clark said the state has confidence Young will do much better than a previous contractor, who had problems retaining workers on the tough schedule required to keep the boat running 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We have worked with the new contractor on some other contracts, and we feel he can get it done,” Clark said.
After an extended period out of the water in 2013, the ferry was again left stranded due to high waters. It went back in service last spring, but has been tied up since December due to winter flooding.
“It’s really not that unusual for the ferry to be down a while during the winter,” Clark said. “We usually have to suspend service for a few weeks due to high water in December or January.”
DOT workers rebuilt the engine from a vacuum truck to replace the ferry’s aged diesel motor, and updated a number of other features on the boat while it was out of the water.
The state has also installed lighted roadside signs on NC 53 and NC 87 to let travelers know when the ferry is closed or open. The signs came from surplus, and were previously used at a tractor-trailer weigh station. The old signs with the schedules and U.S. Coast Guard rules will remain in place, but the ten-inch tall letters of the LED lights will be much more easily read from the highway.
“We’re working on setting the up so they can be switched by telephone,” Clark said. “Right now, the operators have to manually turn them from closed to open, then drive around to the other side to do the same thing. It takes a lot of time.”
The ferry, now in its 110th year of service, was founded by the John and Walter Russ, brothers who lived in Kelly. They built the ferry on the site of the current landing, using timber cut from the surrounding lowlands. The boat was originally pulled across the river using a handmade “pulling stick” that fitted over the cable. The boat was motorized in 1937, and turned over to the Department of Transportation around 1940.
Walter Russ was killed when the original ferry exploded on March 1, 1942. Area residents reported hearing the explosion for miles around, and many speculated German saboteurs had attempted to bomb one of the many barges plying the river, and hit the ferry instead. Russ lived long enough to tell his rescuers that the ferry blew up by accident.
The boat was rebuilt, and is the last remaining inland ferry in the state.
There is no cost to ride the ferry. For more information on opening times, go to the state’s Transportation Information Management System (TIMS) website for up-to-the-minute reports.
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