New multi-mission dry dock at shipyard could start in three years, leaders say
BREMERTON — The construction of the Navy's new multi-mission dry dock at PSNS & IMF — the first dry dock that will be capable of docking the nation's newest Ford-class aircraft carriers — could start as early as Fiscal Year 2026, it was announced at a meeting this week. Currently, 15% of the new dock's design is complete, but specific plans on where in the shipyard would the dry dock be located are still pending to be finalized.
On Wednesday afternoon, Capt. Brent Paul, the commanding officer of NAVFAC Northwest, and David Sweet, who works for Program Management Office-555 (PMO-555) SIOP, the Navy's office established in 2018 to plan, develop, schedule, budget, and implement its over $21-billion investment to optimize the nation's four shipyards, offered presentations regarding the plan during the Kitsap Industry Readiness Summit, hosted by Kitsap Economic Development Alliance (KEDA) at Kitsap Conference Center.
The Navy plans to spend over $21 billion to upgrade Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Building a new multi-mission dry dock at PSNS that can host the Navy's latest warships on the West Coast is part of the Navy's plan for the Bremerton shipyard, as well as the upgrade of the existing Dry Dock 6.
Capt. Paul said 15% of the design for the new dry dock has been completed.
"We're moving towards 35% design," Paul said. "That's to prepare what it is going to look like, but also the public documents, EIS, that will feed into the environmental documentation to make sure that we're building this responsibly and pulling it in all of our key partners and getting comments early on in the design."
As the Navy is working on the environmental impact statement (EIS) of the new dry dock, two alternatives regarding where the dry dock will be located — Dry Dock 3 or Mooring A, is being considered, Sweet said.
"Pretty high likelihood that Dry Dock 3 is going to be the winning location of the multi-mission dry dock, but we're going through the formal EIS analysis of alternatives process, and so I wanted to make sure we included the other alternative as well," Sweet said.
The Navy is estimated to release the EIS draft for the public to review in early or mid-winter next year, according to NAVFAC, Northwest.
Though specific plans haven't been finalized, the new dry dock construction will take about 8 years, roughly scheduled from Fiscal Year 2026 to 2032, according to Capt. Paul. A timeline in his presentation shows that the design process may complete in FY 2025.
"FY 26 Is the goal. That has to be congressionally approved," Paul said.
Also attended by Capt. John Hale, Commanding Officer of Naval Base Kitsap, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer of the Sixth Congressional District, Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler, Kitsap County Commissioner Katie Walters and other stakeholders of the Navy project and contractors, the participants at the summit tuned in and discussed how the billions of federal investment will impact the local economy in Kitsap in the future, as well as possible subcontracting opportunities for local businesses.
"This is about a century of jobs in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the largest employer in Kitsap County," Rep. Kilmer said.
"Shipyards improvements will attract new enterprises and spur current businesses to add jobs and make investments in their operations and facilities," Mayor Wheeler said. "These businesses will also need a prepared workforce, which will help increase available educational and training services for residents and strengthen the talent pool for employers. All of these forces will help to promote business growth, increase employment opportunities, and expand our economy."
By: Peiyu Lin
Source: Kitsap Sun