WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2021
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Navy had awarded a $1.7 billion firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a multi-mission dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
The project was awarded to Omaha, Nebraska-based company 381 Constructors—who was one of two non-price proposals submitted to the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic for the construction project.
About the Project
According to the DoD, the project will involve the construction of partitioned addition to Dry Dock No. 1 within the superflood basin area consisting of two bays which will be labeled “Dry Dock No. 1 North” and “Dry Dock No. 1 West” upon completion. The existing Dry Dock No. 1 will be renamed “Dry Dock No. 1 East” and will have its pump well connected to the new pump well system. The interior also has plans to be modified.
The new bays are to be constructed of a sufficient size and depth to support the maintenance and overhaul of Virginia-class submarines, Blocks I-IV. New construction is also reported to include concrete floors, walls, and center wall separating Dry Dock No. 1 North and Dry Dock No. 1 West, new pump well systems, pump station building, two caissons, portal crane rails, mooring hardware, mechanical and electrical utilities, utility tunnels and all appurtenances required to ensure an operational dry dock.
In addition, the project calls for modifications to the existing basin closure wall, as well as to Berth No. 1 and Berth No. 11. The facility will include basic telephone, computer network, fiber optic, closed-circuit television security system, utility metering and fire alarm systems.
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| AlexiusHoratius, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
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Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Navy had awarded a $1.7 billion firm-fixed-price contract for the construction of a multi-mission dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. |
The Navy has provided contract funds in the amount of $70 million from fiscal 2021 military construction funds. It has been reported that these funds are obligated for the project and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
The remaining cost of the project will be financed by the Navy over seven increments from fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2027 and will reach its ceiling value if the service exercises all options.
Specifically, following the first $70 million increment, the second increment will be funded in fiscal 2022 at $214 million; the third increment will be funded in fiscal 2023 at $390 million; the fourth increment will be funded in fiscal 2024 at $405 million; the fifth increment will be funded in fiscal 2025 at $300 million; The sixth increment will be funded in fiscal 2026 at $200 million; and the seventh increment will be funded in fiscal 2027 at $152,477,644.
The contract also contains seven unexercised options which, if exercised, would increase cumulative contract value to $1,739,899,555.
The project is slated for completion by June 2028.
Recent Navy-Headed Projects
Last month, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) announced a new partnership with remote-sensing technology company Aerial Alchemy in an effort to solve how corrosion affects the performance of Navy ships’ combat systems and to find a way to detect corrosion remotely.
The partnership will reportedly operate under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).
In partnering with Aerial Alchemy specifically, the NSCW PHD is slated to use its medium and heavy-lift UAVs, which use sensors equipped with lidar scanning and other imaging technology, to accurately capture data used to generate a 3D digital representation of a physical asset, also known as a digital twin.
The partnership’s overall goal is to explore using Aerial’s drones and its processing system and visual data to detect areas that may have corrosion. As a drone flies over a specified area of a ship, such as a hull or the rear, it transmits video to create a digital model of a ship that contributes to the ship's detailed analysis, including potential areas of concern for corrosion or rust.
The partnership is also anticipated to bring many benefits to the Navy and the warfighter, including reducing the labor costs of inspections and the ability to inspect difficult and high-risk areas.
Also in July, the Fleet Readiness Center East in Cherry Point, North Carolina, examined new possibilities for quickly and accurately detecting corrosion and preventing its spread on Navy- and Corps-owned military aircraft.
FRCE, located within the Marine Corps Air Station, is touted as North Carolina’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion.
To better mitigate corrosion and costly repairs, the team at FRCE started working under an F-35 Lighting II program, where members observed the demonstration of a tool created to help identify corrosion on a variety of aircraft coatings and help prevent its spread.
Through the use of a mid-wave infrared camera to visually penetrate aircraft coatings and record images of the surface below, the Grey Gecko Real-Time Inspection Tool, or GRIT system, aims to reliably identify corrosion and help facilitate faster, less objective corrosion inspections that reduce corrosion growth and associated costs, and increase aircraft availability.
In terms of upgrade construction projects, at the end of June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that it would be entering a Federal Facility Compliance Agreement with the U.S. Navy to complete major upgrades at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Owned and operated by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Wastewater Treatment Plant is located in the Ewa district of Oahu, Hawaii, and services up to 40,000 people. The facility spans 11.61 acres and accepts both domestic and industrial wastewater.
Using its combined clarifiers, activated sludge process and effluent filtration for approximately 6.5 million gallons of wastewater per day, in addition to other main components, the plant provides advanced secondary treatment.
In conducting various investigations, the EPA has recently found that the wastewater plant is exceeding its discharge limits under the Clean Water Act for cadmium, zinc, oil and grease, pH, and total effluent toxicity.
In addition to the aforementioned issues at the wastewater facility over the last three years, the EPA also reported that the plant has had numerous operation and maintenance violations, including algae growth, warped and disconnected parts, cracked concrete tanks, and severely corroded equipment.
Under the new agreement, the U.S. Navy is required to replace, repair, or refurbish the plant’s three primary clarifiers, five of the six secondary clarifiers, and the effluent pump station by December 31, 2024. In addition, the U.S. Navy must develop a plan to prevent and respond to potential infrastructure failures at the plant. This work will allow the plant to come into and remain in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations related to the discharge of treated wastewater into the ocean.
This settlement furthers EPA’s National Compliance Initiative to reduce the number of U.S. facilities that are in significant non-compliance, and to improve surface water quality by ensuring dischargers comply with permit requirements.
The objective of the new initiative is to improve surface water quality and reduce potential impacts on drinking water supplies by assuring that all NPDES permittees are complying with their permits. In addition, the NCI aims to reduce the FY 2018 national quarterly SNC baseline rate of 20.3% by half by the end of 2022, while assuring that the worst SNC violators are timely and appropriately addressed.
Tagged categories: Awards and honors; Department of Defense (DOD); Government; Government contracts; Program/Project Management; Project Management; U.S. Navy; Upcoming projects
