Green River Ferry closing for 6 months   

MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky.- Hundreds of people who use the Green River Ferry everyday will soon have to find an alternate route.

Starting June 17th, the ferry will be closed until November while a construction project will be taking place.

Both the ferry and the ramps will be upgraded, improving the service and addressing safety problems.

“We are working on the ramps to extend those further out into the river, about 30 feet out into the river. That’s going to allow us to operate when the water is a little bit lower, we can reach out to where the boat is. We’re also installing a retrofitted ferry boat that we have,” said Molly Schroer, public information officer at Mammoth Cave National Park.

Once the construction project is completed, the updated ferry will start transporting bicycles and pedestrians.

“It’s one of the benefits of getting this retrofitted boat, we’re going to have seating and bicycle storage on the vessels so they can transport our hikers and our bikers across the river also,” said Schroer.

More than 200 people use the Ferry each day, so the closure may be an inconvenience for them.

“It’s going to take a lot of time up, when it would be a lot easier just to go across it. So, I’m pretty concerned,” said Andrew Brooks, a regular ferry rider.

Brooks lives in Dog Creek. He takes the ferry a few times a week to visit his Grandma, who lives in Brownsville. Those trips will take a lot longer soon.

“It’s a 30 to 40 minute different drive,” said Brooks.

When the river water is too low, it often leads to extended closures of the Ferry. During the Summer months the issue is often exasperated.

“We realize it is going to be an inconvenience, especially because the majority of the use of this ferry are our local commuters. We know in the long run it’s going to be a benefit, it’s going to be open when the water is lower, so we’ll have less closures throughout the year,” said Schroer.

On Monday and Tuesday of next week, the ferry will be closed while crews work to safely remove the diverse species of mussels from the construction site. During the construction the Green River Ferry area will remain open to hikers and paddlers.