Seattle's Elliott Bay Design Group has designed a new river-class vehicle ferry for North Carolina Department of Transportation's ferry division (NCDT).
To be built at Lousiana-based Bollinger shipyards, the 55.7-metre vessel is due to be delivered by March 1, 2019.
The new ferry will have room for 38 regular-sized vehicles. It will replace the 22-year-old Thomas A Baum, a Hatteras-class ferry that carries 26 vehicles.
"This is a great first step in phasing out our smaller boats and replacing them with larger ones," said NCDT Ferry Division Director Harold Thomas.
"Eventually it will allow us to increase our capacity with the same number of scheduled trips."