Connecting an island to the mainland: Marysville Ferry Terminal

A new ferry helps visitors and residents alike.

The village of Marysville is a small community of 1,500 people located on Wolfe Island off the shore of Kingston, Ontario. The island is a tourist attraction known for cycling, bird watching, swimming and fishing.

The island is only accessible via ferry and there have historically been long wait times in the summer for getting on and off the island. The island has two main ferry docks: one at Dawson’s point (winter route) and one at Marysville (summer route).

In September 2020, the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) closed off the 50-year old Marysville dock to begin construction of a new one that will extend the dock by 200 meters. It will host an electric ferry to improve services to the community. The new electric ferry will hold 400 people and 83 cars, which is an improvement from the current ferry’s 55 car capacity. It will connect Kingston to Marysville all year round.

Thurber provided the preliminary and detailed geotechnical design, foundation engineering, and construction inspection services. The project presented a number of interesting geotechnical challenges: variable depth bedrock, liquefaction concerns, soft lakebed sediment, and dense glacial till deposit with frequent boulders.