Team of Experts Restores Lake Powell Ferry Service

CHANGE

A group of six mechanics with a wide range of expertise was quickly assembled from Price, Cedar City, Richfield, and Salt Lake City. Due to the remote location, it was not an option to run back and forth to the nearest shop or supply house for tools or parts, so they brought a crane, trailer, and any tools that might be needed. In extreme heat, the team detached the 8,000 lb outdrive and hoisted it out of the ferry and onto the trailer for transport to UDOT’s mechanic shop in Cedar City.

After tearing down the unfamiliar outdrive, they determined that the shaft was bent and would need to be repaired or replaced.

Ordering a new shaft would take months. To ensure the fastest possible turnaround, the team divided into three groups and worked simultaneously. One team investigated sending the bent shaft to a local machine shop for straightening, another team traveled to Salt Lake to source parts and seek other machine shops that may be able to straighten the shaft, and a third team started disassembly and preparations for reinstalling the new shaft.

To save travel time once the repairs were complete, they had the ferry moved to the Bullfrog side of the lake.

Within a few weeks, the team reassembled in Cedar City with all the required parts and straightened shaft. They had to design and build custom tools to reassemble the outdrive. After many hours, the repairs were complete, and the outdrive was reinstalled on the ferry.

Parts for future repairs were ordered in case this ever happened again.

RESULT

By pulling together a team with diverse expertise and resources and working on tasks in parallel, the team successfully fabricated specialized tools, overcame parts shortages, and worked efficiently in extreme conditions to get the ferry back in service within a few weeks, minimizing downtime.