Kings Bay Dry Dock Recapitalization
Santa Maria, Ga.
Finalist year project
Presented by: Alberic-Mortenson, a joint venture
Region: ENR Southeast
Owner: Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast
Main design company: Burns and McDonnell
General contractor: Alberic-Mortenson, a joint venture
Register/Casket and Substructure Engineer: Moffatt and Nichol
Subcontractors: Crowder Industrial Construction LLC; Sachs Electric Co.; Kienlen Constructors; Boston Ship Repair LLC; Structural Preservation Systems LLC; BRK Electrical Contractors LLC; Crown Corr Inc.; CA Murren & Sons Heavy Civil LLC; Pollock Research & Design Inc., dba Reading Crane & Engineering Co.; Sustainable Modular Management; Nidec Motor Corp., dba Nidec Industrial Solutions; Kolb Grading LLC; Allen & Graham Inc.; Schoellhorn-Albrecht Machine Co.; FD Thomas Inc.: Oracle Elevator Holdco Inc. dba Oracle Elevator; Legacy Building Solutions Inc.; Crane 1 Services Inc.; Black Security Products LLC; McAllister Towing of New York LLC; Federal EC LLC; Contech Engineered Solutions LLC; FireTech LLC; USA Chemical Storage LLC; Precision Environments Inc.; Ballard Marine Construction LLC; Coffman Engineers Inc.; High Purity Systems Inc.; Inspired Solutions Inc.; Black & Decker (US) Inc. dba SWS VidmarLista; Leonard Masonry Acquisition LLC dba Leonard Masonry; BD Landscaping and Irrigation LLC; RedGuard LLC; Saber Industries Inc.; National Construction Rentals Inc.; Hampton Roads Marine Services Inc. dba Coastal Services; Investment Engineering dba Sparhawk Group; Boykin Erectors Inc.; Forms & Supply Inc dba FSI Office; Mathand Inc.; CID Associates Inc.; Complete Mobile Home Setup Inc.; Southern Valve & Metals LLC; Flexible Lifeline Systems Inc.; Astro Pak Corporation; Mueller Water Products Inc. dba Henry Pratt Company LLC; Cross Environmental Services Inc.; Kudzue 3 Trucking Inc.; Spring Precast LLC; Diverzify Holdings LLC dba Diverzify+ LLC; Actalent Inc.; Translift Dock & Door LLC; Industrial Door Contractors Inc.; Where Target Technologies Inc.; First Coast Test and Balance Inc.; Evan Corporation dba Evan Fall Protection; Peachtree Service Inc. dba Peachtree Pest Control; Eddy’s Glass and Mirror LLC; J. Greene Enterprise dba First Coast Fire and Safety Equipment; Kendell Intermediate Corporation dba Kendell Doors & Hardware LLC; Wagner Consulting Group Inc.; Dixie Contract Carpet, Inc.; Ochoa Construction LLC; Donco Inc.; Multi-graphics Inc.
Kings Bay Naval Base, on the Georgia-Florida border, has been the US Navy’s hub for nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines since the 1980s, according to the team’s presentation, with its 700 feet long by 100 feet wide by 67 feet. deep dry dock Trident Refit Facility in almost continuous use since then. “As one of the largest dry docks in the Northern Hemisphere, [it] has been and continues to be critical to supporting the operational cycle of our Ohio-class submarines,” said Rear Adm. Thomas R. Buchanan, commander of Submarine Group Ten.
But time caught up with the installation. Operating complex mechanical and electrical systems specific to nuclear submarines that are 40 years old and with hard-to-obtain spare parts, “errors and breakdowns occurred routinely, affecting the ability to perform maintenance,” he said. said US Navy Cmdr. Marcel T. Duplantier, who led the estimated $625 million overhaul of Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast and recently retired. He pointed to an earlier rig fire that reduced system redundancy, with the base “essentially limping along with fingers crossed for several years until we replaced it.”
Despite the necessary upgrade effort, a first-time pause in operations for critical construction to lay the groundwork for larger, more complex submarines expected to arrive as early as 2027 did not come easy.
The team sought a 24-month lockout, with the Navy wanting half that, said Duplantier, a 21-year veteran. Finally, he agreed to a 15-month closure. “There were very few people in the Navy who believed we would make it in time,” he said. “The extension of the schedule … would mean more deferred maintenance of the submarine that was unsustainable” for service leaders, Duplantier added.
Calling the project one of the largest government investments in naval infrastructure since World War II, the team said its scope included electrical system overhaul, full mechanical replacements, major concrete repairs within the basin of the dry dock, structural steel improvements throughout the facility and the overhaul of two 85-ton bridge cranes.
The team said the shutdown phase of construction was completed on time in September 2022, with all work closing on budget last April.
Contractor Alberici-Mortenson developed elevated work platforms (above) to accelerate superstructure and system work at Kings Bay, in the first major overhaul of a key US nuclear submarine port.
Photos: Alberici Constructors Inc., top, AB Forces News Collection/Alamy, bottom
Speed up the work
This work was carried out 24/7, with two shifts and a “significant part carried out from extreme heights”, the filing said, with the team erecting a work platform mobile of 2.2 square hectares which allowed the simultaneous construction of the superstructure and the substructure. An Alberici unit manufactured the work deck, with the parent company self-performing 42% of the project scope, according to the filing. Crews replaced 19,000 linear feet of mechanical piping.
A key focus of the work was the facility’s dry dock caisson, a 120-foot-long, 62-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide steel structure that allows for “dry dock” repairs. It was dry pumped and towed 1,173 miles to Boston, where Alberici-Mortenson replaced the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and recoated it inside and out. Crews also replaced carbon-based pipe at the base with fiber-reinforced plastic pipe for most utility systems to prevent corrosion that occurs “at a surprisingly rapid rate” in the coastal environment and to extend system life cycles, Duplantier said.
But the scope of the project did not involve resiliency upgrades, he added, noting that the original facility was built above the level of the 100-year floodplain “so we didn’t have issues of swell or flood”. It was also designed to withstand hurricane-force wind speeds of 150 mph, he added. Updating the dry dock control panel, the “brain” of operations, Duplantier said, was the most critical.
“The installation of a multibillion-dollar submarine on dry land is a carefully coordinated event,” he said, with panel reliability key to successful flooding and dewatering of the dry dock.
A study of facility deficiencies by lead design firm Burns & McDonnell included 3D laser scanning of 900,000 square feet, “which allowed for detailed modeling of existing infrastructure and better crash detection during the design,” said lead project engineer Sean McGillis. Despite additional security for scanning equipment and careful collaboration with dry dock managers to avoid disrupting active work in confined spaces, the technology was “highly effective” in increasing the accuracy and efficiency of the design, he said.
To avoid bottlenecks, special safety and site access rules were developed for up to 1,300 craftsmen, as well as simplified communication protocols for critical information. A three-person “continuity cell” handled all RFIs, change orders and shipment reviews, McGillis said. Despite the risks, the project recorded no fatalities and a lost time accident rate of 0.18 in 3.3 million work hours. The contractor noted its formation of a “crew-based safety advocate to create greater accountability and involvement at all levels.”
But one programming risk the team noted was their inability to detect degraded superstructure steel until shutdown, when sandblasting exposed anomalies. Because the design didn’t include repairs, “we quickly assembled a cross-functional project team to solve the problem,” Duplantier said. That included intensive inspections, added NAVFAC resources and a contract modification, he said. “An all-hands-on-deck effort ended up working really well in the end, but it was quite heavy in the middle of an already complex project,” he added. The team replaced 30,000 bolts and welded 31,000 linear feet of steel.
Despite what he called a “me-first” culture in many projects, Duplantier said, at Kings Bay “we’ve been able to constantly rebalance interactions to be project-first.”
He said the project’s process innovations will set a standard for Navy upgrades under its multibillion-dollar shipyard infrastructure optimization program, set to repair and replace dry docks at four public shipyards. “It became something of a testing ground … for innovative operational structures, risk management procedures and procurement strategies,” Duplantier said.
“Replacing outdated systems with new ones has significantly improved operational reliability and reduced the requirement for corrective maintenance downtime, which in turn allows better focus on mission support,” said Navy Cmdr. . Dan Cloutier, current director of the Engineering and Procurement Division of Kings Bay Public Works Facilities. “The ability to maintain submarines in Kings Bay at the speed necessary to support operations is critical to the Navy’s strategic deterrence mission.”
