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Award: Louisiana shipyard
Value: 300 million dollars
Location: Franklin, Louisiana
Customer: Saronic Technologies
The contractor Alberici, based in St. Louis, along with Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn, was selected a $300 million expansion from naval contractor Saronic Technologies’ Franklin, Louisiana shipyard, according to a Dec. 3 news release from Alberici.
The construction project, which began in November, will add more than 300,000 square feet of new production capacity to the facility. The scope of the expansion includes the construction of three new slips, an expansion of the Saronic warehouse and the development of a dedicated production line for the assembly of large vessels, according to the press release. This production line will focus on “Marauder,” Saronic’s 180-foot autonomous vessel.
Joining Alberici and JE Dunn are JacobsWyper Architects of Philadelphia, P2S of Long Beach, California, and KPFF of Seattle.
This summer, during trade talks revolving around tariffs, South Korea agreed to invest $150 billion in the US shipbuilding industry, which has lagging far behind global competitorsincluding China, according to NBC News. The pledge even came with a new mantra, embraced by President Donald Trump’s administration: Make America’s Shipbuilding Great Againaccording to the Wall Street Journal.
Alberici has experience in shipyards and ports. For the past five years, the company has been named the No. 4 marine and port facilities contractor by Engineering News-Record, according to its website. It has also invested $2 billion in civil and marine projects over the past five years, according to the company’s industry website.
The news of the expansion comes shortly after the company announced that it would bought the Louisiana shipyard in Aprilwith the production of the Marauder ship as a stated goal. The ship is designed to travel up to 3,500 nautical miles or to travel over 30 days, depending on mission requirements.
At full capacity, Saronic is expected to do just that create 1,500 new direct jobs with an average annual salary of $87,936, according to Louisiana Economic Development. The company expects construction to be complete by the end of 2026, with expanded operations to begin in 2027.
