Memorial Day weekend, one of the Steamship Authority’s busiest times of the year, got off to an exceptionally rough start on May 23.

After high winds led to ferry cancellations the night before, Island-bound motorists jammed the roads to the Woods Hole terminal Friday morning.

Because construction work at the terminal has limited the amount of room available for vehicles, many drivers were told to come back closer to their sailing time, causing even more traffic chaos in Woods Hole.

“We will admit, we got overwhelmed by the number of people that were coming down that [Friday] morning,” general manager Robert Davis told the Steamship Authority’s advisory port council this week.

“The staff there … were able to get the police details [to the] site to be able to assist in the traffic and keeping the traffic moving as much as possible,” Mr. Davis said.

Director of shoreside operations Alison Fletcher said the May 23 backups followed about 10 trip cancellations the day before.

“Unfortunately, with the current construction plan, the [Woods Hole] terminal had cars in every possible location,” Ms. Fletcher said at Tuesday’s port council meeting.

She and chief operating officer Mark Amundsen are collaborating to prevent a repeat of May 23, Ms. Fletcher said.

“[We] are working on a plan … to potentially pre-stage at different locations, have them all go to that location and then come down in waves as we need them on the property,” she said.

Mr. Davis said the Steamship Authority also intends to hire more terminal workers in Woods Hole and work with the Falmouth police department to add traffic details as needed.

“That way we can be able to help keep the traffic moving [and] improve the safety of the passengers that are walking the site,” he said.

The boat line has also purchased a golf cart to shepherd passengers who have trouble walking through across the lot to the ferries. 

“The golf cart that we have on order is due in a week, so that’ll help assist people who have mobility challenges to the terminal, to the vessel, or vice versa,” Mr. Davis added.

The Steamship Authority is about a year away from completing its Woods Hole terminal reconstruction project. The effort began in late 2017 with the installation of a modular temporary ticket building.

The longstanding Steamship Authority ticketing, waiting and office building at the water’s edge was demolished in early 2018; the administrative offices now are located at the boat line’s Palmer avenue property.

In past years, terminal construction has been halted between May and October. But in order to stay on schedule, work is continuing on the ticket building this summer.

Among other business Tuesday, the port council heard from Mr. Amundsen that the next addition to the Steamship Authority fleet, M/V Monomoy, is expected to make its way north from Alabama Shipyard in August.

The third in a trio of sister ships that began their lives as service vessels in the offshore oil industry, the rebuilt Monomoy will be identical to M/V Aquinnah and M/V Barnstable in every way but one.

Based on feedback from SSA crew members who have been running the Barnstable since March, the Monomoy is receiving a $90,000 extension to its skeg, which is an element of the stern keel.

“It helps with steerage,” Mr. Amundsen said.

If the skeg extension improves the Monomoy’s handling compared to the Barnstable and Aquinnah, Mr. Amundsen said, the other two vessels can be retrofitted when they go into dry dock for maintenance.

“We have some options for the skeg [extensions] to be prefabricated and installed, but we want to see the performance,” he said.