NAVFAC Awards Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program Contract for New Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Caissons
20 April 2022
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic awarded a contract Apr. 11 for construction of two multi-mission graving dock caissons at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Kittery, Maine.
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic awarded a contract Apr. 11 for construction of two multi-mission graving dock caissons at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Kittery, Maine.
The caisson construction for PNSY dry docks #1N and #1W will represent completion of two new Virginia class docking positions at PNSY and is the first large-scale capital equipment project as a part of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP) developed in response to the identified critical shortage of fleet-wide maintenance capacity for the Navy’s attack submarine fleet.
These dry docks will be the first added dry docking capacity for the Navy in the last quarter century or more. The Navy’s planned use of these new dry docks is anticipated to mitigate deferred or delayed Virginia-class submarine maintenance availabilities through 2040.
“This is a major award supporting our flagship infrastructure project, multi-mission Dry Dock #1,” said Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Commander Capt. Michael Oberdorf. “As America’s leader in attack submarine modernization, it’s critical for our Navy to charge forward with this project to transform and optimize our shipyard for the future of our submarine force.”
Bollinger Shipyards, based in Lockport, Louisiana, was awarded the firm-fixed-price contract, which is expected to be completed by September 2025.
SIOP’s mission is to execute the Navy’s once-in-a-century investment to reconfigure, modernize and optimize our four aging naval shipyards into new, modern facilities.
SIOP will improve needed efficiencies across the U.S. Navy’s four public shipyards to ensure the fleet is prepared to support the nation’s national security mission by synchronizing with current efforts to improve the productivity of the workforce, processes and procedures. By modernizing the infrastructure and industrial plants to deliver availabilities needed in strategic competition, the shipyards will be able to support the fleet more efficiently and effectively.
For more information about the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, visit https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/SIOP/.