New Schuylkill route for Ride the Ducks poses many challenges

Tourist duck boats may return to Philadelphia, but only if the company that operates them gets approval from several agencies to build a ramp near a popular recreation path along the Schuylkill.

Ride the Ducks, which operates the amphibious vehicles, remains confident of its new route, developed after a July 7 accident on the Delaware River that killed two young Hungarian tourists, but the proposed location presents several challenges.

Most significant is the likely disruption to the riverfront path, which has become so popular that over the summer people used it for about 2,200 trips daily. Ride the Ducks says it will build and pay for a trench under the path.

Bob Salmon, vice president of marketing and sales for Ride the Ducks, said he believed the company could devise a detour during construction to minimize disruption on the path.

Drexel University engineering professor Patricia Gallagher said, "It's a heavily used path. There could be a lot of public outcry."

Excavation of the trench, expected to be completed by March, is likely to be costly. One expert put the price tag at more than $1 million. And devising a route that would allow the duck vehicles to navigate a steep riverbank in a small amount of space poses Tetris-like engineering challenges.

Company and city officials say they have yet to decide the ducks' exact route, which would start in Old City, proceed to the Parkway, and leave the street somewhere near Eakins Oval to head down to the riverbank.

The ducks would enter the river at Schuylkill Banks Park near Martin Luther King Drive in an area that is now muddy shoreline, Salmon said.

The company plans to build a bridge "so that the bikers and runners can go over the ramp" that will take the ducks from the street into the Schuylkill, he said.

It recently hired Duffield Associates, a Wilmington engineering firm, to oversee design and construction. Ride the Ducks says it is not sure when digging will begin, but it wants to have its boats on the water by March.

City Council will hold a public hearing on the plan, and the Parks and Recreation, Streets, and Planning Departments will review the project.

Nutter administration officials have expressed strong support for the proposal.

"I happen to think that this is what's best for the city overall," Managing Director Richard Negrin said. "I also think the Schuylkill is a more attractive, better option from the business aspect. It's more picturesque."

Joseph Syrnick, an engineer who worked for the city and helped design Schuylkill Banks Park before becoming president of the Schuylkill River Development Corp., supports the plan but said it wouldn't be easy.

"There is a lot of work they need to do engineering-wise," he said. In addition to enabling the ducks to negotiate a steep grade, the design must ensure that the boats can enter the water at low tide, he said.

The route also must not disrupt the park's verdant aesthetic, he added. The company will have to conceal the trench walls with plants or other cover, he said.

Digging won't be cheap.

"A million dollars at least," Syrnick said.

Ride the Ducks has not shied away from spending money. Its Delaware River ramp cost about $585,000 eight years ago but did not involve tunneling under a path at a potentially steep grade.

"I think there is a great opportunity here, but I also think that they have a lot of work to do probably to satisfy the city," Syrnick said. "If it's done right, I think it could be kind of cool."

The ducks will not travel near the CSX Corp. train tracks in the area, Salmon and a CSX spokesman said.

The new route would include views of Old City, City Hall, and the museums along the Parkway. Ride the Ducks said passengers would have views of Center City from the river.

Engineering a tunnel under a path for a big boat in an area that sometimes floods is not Ride the Ducks' sole hurdle.

The U.S. Coast Guard still must sign off on the boats' 20-minute water route.

The Coast Guard also awaits results of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the July 7 accident. If those results, which are not expected until next year, determine that the duck-boat design contributed to the passengers' deaths, it could request changes to the vessels or deem them unsafe and bar them from the water.

Lawyers for the accident victims have argued that the boats' canopies prevent passengers from escaping in the event of a sinking. Salmon has said the boats exceed Coast Guard safety regulations regarding canopies.

He also said that the barge involved in the accident was responsible and that he believed the canopy "protected passengers from what would have been a devastating direct impact."

Coast Guard Lt. Michael Patterson said his agency wanted to see the NTSB report so it can have "the best information" to make a responsible decision.

The company also will have to get construction and other permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the city, processes that take three to four months.

Jonathan Bari, who runs the Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia and who has complained that the city has favored Ride the Ducks over other tour operators, said he thought the city should put the business opportunity up for competitive bid. Ride the Ducks hopes to have exclusive access to its Schuylkill ramp, as it had on the Delaware.

"For a city strapped on resources and cash, if it's really a valuable piece of property, it should be bid out," Bari said.

Brian Abernathy, who works for Negrin, said putting the project out to bid wouldn't make sense. Ride the Ducks is a unique aquatic tour, he said, and it has been operating here for many years.

Abernathy said the public will get a chance to give its input. City Council would have to pass an ordinance approving the right-of-way for the entrance to the Schuylkill, he said, which will require a public hearing.

"The city, the community, and other users have a number of concerns that must be resolved before a proposal is finalized," Abernathy said.

Russell Meddin, co-coordinator of the Schuylkill River Park Alliance, an advocacy group, said he thought the move to the Schuylkill could create good opportunities for the city.

"Something that affects the trail is a major concern of ours, but from the conversations that we had, it seems like this is a win-win for many organizations who use the trail and want to see increased usage of the Schuylkill River," he said.

On July 7, a K-Sea Transportation Partners tug pushing a barge owned by the city crashed into a duck boat, killing Hungarian tourists Szabolcs Prem, 20, and Dora Schwendtner, 16.

The duck boat had stopped on the Delaware after its captain saw smoke coming from the engine. Capt. Gary Fox radioed for help and issued warnings over marine channels, saying he had no power. He also asked the tug to change course.

The tug's first mate was at the helm. He has refused to be interviewed by the NTSB.

Salmon said busy commercial traffic on the Delaware did not affect the company's decision to move to the Schuylkill.

The Schuylkill River Development Corp. operates a boat that gives river tours on certain days from June through October, but Syrnick said he did not think the ducks would interfere with that.