Metro

Newest SI Ferries look like ‘lemons,’ repairs are costing city

These lemons are squeezing the city dry.

Repair costs for the three newest vessels in the Staten Island Ferry fleet total $15.6 million, and the city is footing 95 percent — or $14.9 million — of the bill, the city Department of Transportation revealed.

The Molinari-class boats, which the city bought for a total of $140 million, have been the bane of the eight-vessel fleet since launching in 2005 and are so fraught with mechanical problems that one ferry captain told The Post they “put people at risk.”

Repairs for which taxpayers have had to shell out include:

  •  $13.5 million for new propulsion drives and control systems.
  •  $775,000 for “transformer snubber installation.”
  •  $600,000 for insulation-monitoring systems.

Meanwhile, the shipyard that manufactured the boats, Manitowoc Marine, and makers of component parts like Siemens and Caterpillar, paid relatively small sums for the problem-plagued tubs. Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, the Italian company that made the boats’ problematic drive systems, didn’t pay a dime for repairs, the DOT ­revealed.

The proportion of repairs the city had absorbed since 2005 suggest the warranties — which, according to the DOT, expired more than six years ago — didn’t offer much protection.

“The city should be trying to recover money for damages,” said Staten Island Assemblyman ­Joseph Borelli. “If this were a Hyundai or a Nissan, we could return them under the lemon law.”

Borelli and city Councilman Steven Matteo suggested that City Comptroller Scott Stringer and the Law Department audit the DOT’s spending on the boats, the city’s contract with the manufacturer and the wording of each warranty.

The Molinari class includes the Guy V. Molinari, the Sen. John J. Marchi and the Spirit of America. Since 2008, the three boats have broken down a total of 58 times — and 26 of those incidents occurred within only a month of the latest inspections.

The oldest ferry in the fleet, the circa-1965 John F. Kennedy, remarkably had no mechanical failures in the same period, Coast Guard records showed. The Molinari conked out a total of 25 times.

The DOT appears determined to ensure that the Molinari vessels are shipshape despite all their drawbacks. It completed retrofitting the Spirit of America’s propulsion system in May and plans to do the same to the two other ferries within the next year, an agency spokeswoman said.