Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito joined a contingent of Columbia Point stakeholders last Wednesday evening for a tour of Fallon Pier, which has been identified as a potential location for ferry service connecting Dorchester with Quincy and Long Wharf in Boston.

UMass Boston Interim Chancellor Katherine Newman and JFK Library Foundation executive director Steven Rothstein were among the group that met with Polito at the library before taking a walking tour of the pier setting.

Newman said that the possibility of having a ferry stop just steps from the UMass Boston campus would be “a real shot in the arm. It would be completely transformative on a peninsula that is already under transformation,” she said, noting the current explosion of growth of campus as well as the looming development of the former Bayside Expo Center site.

Researchers at UMass Boston received a $150,000 grant last February to analyze what improvements need to be made to the pier to set it up for a ferry service. They are expected to have their report available by January.

According to a report published by Boston Harbor Now, a civic organization advocating for the ferry service, Fallon Pier offers an optimal location in terms of water depth because a dredged channel already offers access to the pier. Any necessary changes, the report asserts, will only require adding infrastructure like floats, ramps, and gangways to the existing dock.

Other new construction would include a passenger shelter, a ticket office, safety equipment, bike racks, and an ADA-accessible ramp leading up the hill toward the library. The report estimated the cost of these renovations would amount to about $5 million.

Fallon Pier on Columbia Point could be the site of a new ferry service in a matter of years. Dan Sheehan photo

Columbia Point is home to thousands of students and faculty at UMass Boston and Boston College High School, both of which would benefit from having a commuter option from the South Shore, said Newman, who added that it “would release some of the tension out on the street and give us a beautiful way to get here in the morning.

While Fallon Pier has been used occasionally by chartered boats, often for events at JFK Library, there is currently no scheduled service to the “underutilized” dock.

Polito noted that a renovation project offers an opportunity to rebuild the pier with the climate in mind, citing S.10, a Baker administration-sponsored bill that would create funds for constructing climate-resistant infrastructure.

“This, in my mind, would be a project that would qualify as wanting to build resilient infrastructure,” she said, adding, “Obviously, we would not want to rebuild this pier in the same way it was built at the beginning of time because it wouldn’t stand up to the climate changes and impact that the water brings to this point.”

Chris Sweeney, director of transportation at UMass Boston, pointed out that in addition to a 100-passenger MBTA ferry, other recreational and tourism-oriented vessels could use the pier for their benefit. “We’ve had interest from Encore about doing a tourist ferry from here,” he said. “We’ll also have built-in costs to maintain this. One thought is to have some slips here that could be rented. So, you walk out of the library, you come down here and go on a whale watch out of here, or a fishing charter.”

Sweeney mentioned Discover Dorchester Bay tours and Boston Harbor tours as other potential recreational trips that could depart from the site.
Fares for the ferry service would range from $6.50 to $10, according to the report, with trips lasting roughly 30 minutes. In a JFK Library Foundation poll from last year, 76 percent of responders indicated they would be more likely to visit the library if water transportation were available.

Get the Dorchester Reporter— the paper of record for Boston’s largest and most diverse neighborhood—delivered to your door for just $30 per year.

That's 52 weeks of the Dorchester Reporter delivered by USPS for just $30.

Support our brand of community journalism AND get the print edition delivered to your door each week— the best deal in town!

Click here to submit your order with PayPal:

Or call 617-436-1222.