Massive Floating Dry Dock Arrives in San Diego

By Mark Edward Nero

On Dec. 8, BAE Systems received a new 950-foot-long, 55,000-long-ton floating dry dock at its San Diego shipyard. The dry dock, BAE says, is part of the company’s $100 million investment in the yard to service the anticipated increase of US Navy ships on the West Coast.

The new floating dry dock arrived at the company’s shipyard towed by the ocean-going and salvage tug POSH Terasea Eagle.

Over the next two months, the BAE Systems team says, it plans to complete final assembly, installation, testing, and certification of the dry dock, which is expected to be operational in early 2017. The first ship to be serviced in the dry dock will be the San Diego-homeported amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans.

“We have made the strategic investment to meet the ship repair needs of the Navy,” BAE Systems Ship Repair Vice President and General Manager Joe Campbell said in a statement. “With two large dry docks now in our shipyard, we’ll enhance the San Diego industrial base’s ability to repair warships in their homeport, providing the key maintenance and modernization work needed for the ships’ continued service to our nation and the stability for the ships’ crews.”

The new dry dock is 950 feet long, 205 feet wide and has a lift capacity of 55,000-long-ton ship weight, making it capable of accommodating amphibious assault ships, auxiliary ships, cruisers, destroyers, littoral combat ships, transport dock and dock landing ships, and select commercial vessels.

It uses all electric power and its environmental features include LED lighting throughout the structure; a non-toxic underwater hull and ballast tank coating; storm water recovery systems; closed-loop salt water fire protection and cooling systems; and air-cooled emergency backup generators.

BAE Expanding San Diego Drydock Facilities

By Mark Edward Nero

BAE Systems said March 30 that it plans to significantly expand the dry-docking capabilities at its San Diego shipyard, thereby enhancing the ship repair, maintenance and modernization services it provides to the US Navy, other government agencies and commercial customers.

The investment is expected to include the purchase of a new dry dock and a range of infrastructure improvements at the yard at an estimated cost of $100 million.

The company made the announcement during a ribbon-cutting ceremony dedicating a new pier at the shipyard along the San Diego waterfront. Attendees included US Reps. Susan Davis, Duncan Hunter and Scott Peters.

“Our primary strategy and mission in San Diego is to support the US Navy and its rebalance to the Pacific,” said Erwin Bieber, president of BAE Systems’ Platforms & Services sector. “The new pier and dry dock will complement and expand the shipyard’s existing capacity in this homeport and provide greater capabilities to our customers.”

The new pier and dry dock would support current and future Navy surface ship repair, maintenance, and modernization, as well as accommodate cruisers, destroyers, amphibious assault ships, mine countermeasures ships and both variants of the Littoral Combat Ship, according to BAE.

The expanded facilities could also service other ships and vessels under contract, including those for Military Sealift Command, the US Coast Guard, and the US Maritime Administration.

The new Pier 4, planned at 415 feet long and 64 feet wide, is to replace a 52-year-old pier, and includes new services such as fresh water, electrical, sewage and storm water containment.

The new dry dock will measure 950-feet long and 205-feet wide, with a design lifting capacity of 55,000 tons, according to BAE. When operational in early 2017, it would be the company’s largest dry dock in the United States.

Environmental design features include LED lighting, electric cranes, air-cooled emergency generators, a zero discharge closed-loop salt water system, and storm water recovery systems.

Massive Floating Drydock Arrives in Portland

By Mark Edward Nero

North America’s largest floating drydock, the Vigorous, has arrived in Portland, brought by one of the world’s largest ships, the 738-foot M/V Blue Marlin.

The drydock, used to lift vessels as large as cruise ships out of the water, was built in China by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries. It arrived at the mouth of the Columbia on Aug. 25 and made its way up to Vigor Industrial’s Portland shipyard on the Willamette River.

The drydock is currently in three parts, but when fully assembled, it will be 960-feet long.

Vigor is investing more than $50 million to build and deliver the Vigorous, with the company saying that the drydock will allow Vigor to service vessels such as cruise ships, tankers and cargo ships.

It also frees the company to send another drydock from Portland to Seattle, expanding capacity there.

The new drydock is expected to allow the company to better serve a range of customers with large vessels at a time when total large-drydock capacity on the West Coast has been shrinking. Two large vessels, Maritime Administration cargo ships, are already booked for repairs when the drydock enters service in November.

“The Vigorous is a symbol of the resurgence of the maritime industry in Portland and the wider Pacific Northwest,” Vigor CEO Frank Foti said. “Back in 2000, the shipyard was struggling. Today, we’re growing across the region, and I’m proud and profoundly grateful that we’re in a place to make this kind of investment.”

The Vigorous is about the same size as a drydock Foti was forced to sell in 2001 in order to repay millions of dollars that the company owed lenders. The sale of the shipyard’s largest asset led some to speculate at the time that it signaled the end of shipbuilding in Portland. Since then, however, the company has grown from the single shipyard to nine locations from Portland to Alaska. Vigor says its overall workforce now includes over 2,000 people.