MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023
Last week, the U.S. Navy awarded a firm-fixed-price task order of more than $2.8 billion to Dragados/Hawaiian Dredging/Orion JV (Honolulu) for the construction of a new concrete dry dock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
According to a release from the U.S. Department of Defense, this contract is part of the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, a holistic plan that integrates all infrastructure and industrial plant equipment investments at the Navy’s four public shipyards to meet nuclear fleet maintenance requirements.
Work will be performed in Hawaii and is expected to be completed by September 2027 at an estimated cost of $2,839,880,250, according to the DoD.
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Last week, the U.S. Navy awarded a firm-fixed-price task order of more than $2.8 billion to Dragados/Hawaiian Dredging/Orion JV (Honolulu) for the construction of a new concrete dry dock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. |
Contract Details
According to a report from GovConWire, the project involves replacing the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard’s existing Dry Dock 3 with a new graving dock, as part of the Navy’s plans to improve its ability to maintain and modernize the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s nuclear-powered submarines.
The Dragados/Hawaiian Dredging/Orion joint venture was reportedly one of five companies that submitted proposals for this task order, which was contracted under a previously awarded multiple-award construction contract.
The contract is reportedly being incrementally funded, with $463,000,000 being allocated at this year. Those funds will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the year, according to the DoD. Subsequent contractual increments will be funded each year after, in the amounts of $1,267,000,000 in 2024; $613,000,000 in 2025; and $496,880,250 in 2026.
The DoD says that the contract also contains three options, which if exercised, would bring the total contract value to over $3.4 billion
The task order will be overseen by the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Pacific, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
Other Navy Shipyard News
Last September, the Navy announced that it was standardizing wages for federal painters across all four public shipyards—the first increase for top-tiered federal painters in 60 years.
While the previous top tier wage grade for federal painters fell at WG-9, the Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications announced the grade has now been set at WG-10. The increase will reportedly affect approximately 145 shipyard painters.
The four public shipyards include Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine; Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Washington; and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Hawaii.
These painters are also eligible for competitive promotions, as well as expanded career growth opportunities for skilled tradespeople.
The effort to standardize wage potential was led by the Naval Sustainment System–Shipyards (NSS-SY) People Pillar and required the coordination of the public shipyards, the Fleet and Defense Civilian Human Resource Offices, the Navy said at the time in a release.
Rear Adm. Scott Brown explained that the painting and coatings used now require “significantly more training and expertise” than when the previous wage grade system established. The coatings work is completed to preserve metal surfaces exposed to the sea water, while their application must be done with specific environmental controls that account for heat and humidity. The paint must also be applied within thousandths of an inch to ensure proper adhesion and protection of the surfaces.
“Being a painter in a naval shipyard requires our people to be equal parts technical expert and artist,” Brown said.
More recently, the Navy announced earlier this month that the Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) is integrating cold spray metallization technology at its depot to aid in reducing aircraft maintenance turnaround times and decreasing costs.
The technology is reportedly being fielded on the H-1 line at the depot’s detachment at Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonvilla, North Carolina, after years of testing and evaluation.
“With this mobile, autonomous cold spray system, we’ll be bringing repair capabilities closer to the aircraft,” explained Jessica Templeton, the Air Vehicle and Materials Engineering lead with the Naval Air Systems Command Fleet Support Team’s Advanced Technology and Innovation Team at FRCE.
“We will be able to make repairs in the shadow of the aircraft that were previously not possible using existing, approved cold spray systems. And there’s flexibility in that the system can be programmed to run autonomously, or be used in-hand by qualified artisans.”
According to the Navy’s press release, the cold spray process bonds metal to metal in a relatively low-heat environment in order to deposit a coating onto a surface, or substrate. Solid metal powders are accelerated through a heated gas and directed toward a metallic substrate. The moving particles impact the surface and embed on the substrate, forming a strong bond.
Additionally, the coating can fill abrasions or gouges in some cases, as well as provide protective coverage in others.
“The system will save time, because the artisans won’t have to fully disassemble the aircraft in order to complete these specific, approved repairs,” Templeton continued. “We’ll save on time and costs associated with transporting certain parts and components from one location to another.
“And we’ll further save on costs by returning to use some components that would have been scrapped before, but can now be salvaged through the cold spray process. There are so many benefits to having this system approved for use.”
Tagged categories: Construction; Department of Defense (DOD); Government; Government contracts; Labor; Marine; Newbuilding (marine); Program/Project Management; Project Management; U.S. Navy
