Electric Boat celebrated the topping off milestone for its South Yard Assembly Building (SYAB) on March 10, 2022, when the last beam was placed atop the structure. Electric Boat leadership, members of EB’s Facilities Master Plan (FMP) team, the staff and employees of AECOM; the General Contractor, Berlin Steel; the structural steel erector, and several of SYAB’s construction contractors gathered in EB’s Groton South Yard on Thursday to witness and celebrate the final roof truss being lifted and set into place.
Those in attendance were invited to sign the truss before its placement atop the building where the ballistic-missile and attack submarines needed to defend our nation through this century and beyond will be assembled and tested before delivery to the U.S. Navy.
“We need this building to keep us safe, our families safe and the world safe,” said Joe Drake, EB’s vice president of real estate and facilities. “The last five years we’ve been building, and now we’re in the home stretch.”
The South Yard Assembly Building is the centerpiece of General Dynamics Electric Boat’s $1.85 billion facilities expansion project at Groton and Quonset Point to support construction of the Columbia Class ballistic-missile submarines—the nation’s top strategic defense priority. The project was designed by Jacobs Engineering Group.
For nearly 15 years, Electric Boat has been working on plans to execute the design and construction of this crucial program, and has hired and trained thousands of new skilled tradespeople and collaborated with its suppliers to prepare for expanded demand in support of construction. The Columbia program is now in full-scale production, with construction of the lead ship, Columbia, nearing 17% complete. Last May, advance construction for the second ship, Wisconsin, began.
This 200,000 square-foot building is the largest construction project to take place at Electric Boat in over 50 years. Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023, the SYAB will be home to 1,400 skilled shipbuilders who will deliver the Columbia Class to the U.S. Navy beginning in 2027.
“2027 may seem a long ways away,” said Capt. Andrew Gillespy, USN, Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion & Repair, Groton. But before we know it, he continued, “we’re going to see the Columbia—20,000 tons of American sovereignty—sail down the river.”
