USA: Austal Celebrates the Official Opening of Three New Buildings

On July 6, a little more than a year after a memorable groundbreaking ceremony was held for new construction at Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipbuilding facility, over 120 distinguished guests joined Austal in celebrating the official opening of not one but three new buildings – Module Manufacturing Facility (MMF) Phase 2, Assembly Bay 5 and the Office Complex – with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The ceremony was led by Austal USA’s Interim President & Chief Financial Officer, Brian Leathers. Other event participants included: Austal USA Senior Vice President of Operations Craig Perciavalle; Austal USA Vice President of Sales, Marketing and External Affairs Craig Hooper; U.S. Senator (R) Jeff Sessions; Mobile County Commission President Connie Hudson; Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland; Gray Construction CEO Stephen Gray; and Thompson Engineering Chairman Henry R. Seawell, III.

Mr. Leathers had this to say regarding the completion of these three building construction projects, “I am pleased to announce that all three of these projects were completed under budget and either on or ahead of schedule. This says a lot about our Facilities Development team who are still working to complete further expansion of our ever-growing operation.” Leathers added, “In just a few short years, Austal has accomplished what has taken others decades. We are the proud contractors of two major U.S. Navy shipbuilding programs and we have grown our operation to meet the needs of our client as we promised them we would.”

Located at the intersection of Dunlap Drive and Addsco Road, the completed MMF project includes 740,000 square feet (68,750 square metres  / 17 acres) of manufacturing space, 85,000 square feet (7,900 square metres) of drive-through warehouse space for efficient receipt and distribution of materials from Austal’s suppliers, and 60,000 square feet (5,575 square metres) of office space. The MMF expansion can accommodate a total workforce of up to 1,200 personnel in the new buildings. The completion of MMF Phase 2 now makes the MMF big enough to fit all the football playing fields of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), including end zones, inside. It is a mirror image of Phase 1 but the designers of Phase 2 took into consideration arrangement lessons-learned and included additional cranes for increased lifting capacity and static construction space for longer construction duration items not conforming to standard assembly line times.

The state-of-the-art facility is capable of constructing six large aluminum vessels such as the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and/or Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) per year. Construction is in progress in the MMF on modules for JHSV 2, 3 and 4 and LCS 6 and 8.

Assembly Bay 5 was constructed south of the Mid Yard Breakroom adjacent to Assembly Bay 4 where Millinocket (JHSV 3) is currently being assembled. It has 59,000 square feet (5,480 square metres) of floor space, 425 feet long by 135 feet wide (130m by 41m), and is similar to that of the existing Assembly Bays 3 and 4, with the ability to join with the future expansion of Assembly Bay 6. Bay 5 is now long enough to construct LCS completely inside and is about 10 feet (3m) taller than Bays 3 and 4, allowing additional clearance for the LCS uppermost deckhouse. The building contains additional overhead cranes to provide for rotating modules inside the assembly bay.

The new three-story Office Complex is just north of the MMF on Addsco Road and encompasses over 110,000 square feet (10,220 square metres) of office space to include a reconfigurable Multi-Use Room capable of seating 400 people auditorium-style. It will house 450 employees and is five times the size of the existing two-story office building on Dunlap Drive. This new office building will allow Austal to co-locate its engineers, project and program offices, purchasing, contracts and legal, finance, business integration, and sales and marketing who are currently spread all over Mobile in separate buildings and trailers.

Gray Construction, located in Birmingham, built the second half of the MMF and Office Complex. Thompson Engineering of Mobile designed and built Assembly Bay 5. Local subcontractors included SJ&L, Rowe Surveying and Engineering, Southern Earth Sciences, Jordan Pile Driving, Robert J. Baggett, Persons Service Company, A&B Electric, KMC, National Pump and Compressor, Gorham HVAC, Kittrell Acoustics, Warehouse Equipment/Supply, and Team Steel Placement.

Austal USA is a full-service shipyard offering design, construction and high-speed vessel service and repair. As Austal USA continues to expand its service and repair capabilities, the company is well-positioned for new business with engineering, test and trials capabilities, and a new waterfront facility all co-located on the Mobile Bay waterfront.

Austal is currently under contract with the U.S. Navy to build nine 103-metre JHSVs under a 10-ship, $1.6 billion contract and five 127-metre Independence-variant LCS class ships, four of which are a part of a 10-ship, $3.5 billion contract.

For the LCS and JHSV programs, Austal, as prime contractor, is teamed with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics. As the ship systems integrator, General Dynamics is responsible for the design, integration and testing of the ship’s electronic systems including the combat system, networks, and seaframe control. General Dynamics’ proven open architecture approach allows for affordable and efficient capability growth as technologies develop.

These two contracts will require Austal to increase its Mobile, Alabama workforce to approximately 4,000 employees in order to fulfil the contract requirements.

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, July 9, 2012; Image: austal