The first of 27 concrete monolith structures floats on the Piscataqua River Thursday, May 16, 2024 en route to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for the ongoing Dry Dock 1 expansion project. (Photo by Deb Cram/Seacoastonline)
The seven-year $1.87 billion dry dock expansion at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is about halfway to completion, an effort that kicked off with a September 2021 groundbreaking featuring Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro.
The project is expanding the yard’s Dry Dock 1 area so the shipyard can hold five Los Angeles- and Virginia-class submarines at a time for repair, maintenance and modernization efforts. The nation’s oldest shipyard currently has the capability to hold three submarines in its three dry docks.
The two new dry docks combined will be roughly the same size as two-and-a-half football fields upon completion, according to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard spokesperson Gary Hildreth. The expansion is funded by the federal Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program.
“More efficient and capable dry docks will reduce maintenance backlogs and therefore lessen scheduling pressures,” Hildreth said.
The first of 27 concrete monoliths for the project, floated down the Piscataqua River from Cianbro Corporation’s Brewer, Maine modular manufacturing facility, was delivered to the shipyard for the project in May. In 2024, eight of the monoliths were installed.
The first of 27 concrete monolith structures floats on the Piscataqua River Thursday, May 16, 2024 en route to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for the ongoing Dry Dock 1 expansion project.Several major items remain on the to-do list for the dry dock expansion, including the installation of utilities and a crane rail. In addition, two floating caisson gates for the project will be built in Mississippi and delivered to Maine. A newly built caisson for the project was just delivered to the shipyard on Dec. 20, brought up from Norfolk, Virginia, during a five-day journey.
The entire dry dock expansion is expected to be completed by August 2028, on schedule.
Read the full story at Portsmouth Herald.
This article is being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
