Hi everyone; it’s Kevin. Today is Wednesday, March 16th.
Last week we held the topping-off ceremony for the South Yard Assembly Building (SYAB), when the final roof truss was lifted and set into place. This 200,000 square-foot building will be home to about 1,400 of us shipbuilders working to deliver Columbia to the Navy. That work will begin in the building sometime next year, and it will be in full-bore production in about the 2027 timeframe.
Today joining me is Joe Drake (JD), our Vice President of Real Estate and Facilities, and he’s going to provide us an update on the South Yard project and the other buildings going up across Quonset Point and Groton as part of our almost $2 billion dollar facilities expansion project.
So Joe, congratulations to you and your team on meeting this milestone; I know we’ve been eager to see this, and we’re making some great progress on the building. I know you’re looking forward to it opening during the first quarter of next year. Let’s talk about the work that’s going on between now and then to get the building ready for final assembly and test of Columbia.
JD: Thanks Kevin. It’s a great time to be here at Electric Boat. 2022 is going to be a significant year for us as we continue to transition and prepare ourselves for the start of assembly and test of Columbia here in Groton. We are in the final year of construction of the South Yard Assembly Building. As you have noted, we have achieved several significant milestones already. Recently, we set the last truss atop the structure and had our topping-out celebration. We also set our land-based steam boiler, and within two weeks we will have permanent power to our transfer station along Eastern Point Road. In addition, some upcoming construction milestones include:
- We will be starting the installation of the north mega doors next week;
- The Utility Building will be weather-tight by the end of March;
- The SYAB itself will be weather-tight by mid-June;
- We are rapidly moving forward with our installation of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and life-safety equipment in the building; it’s kind of hidden from view now as the panels are going up, but there is a significant amount of work going on inside the building in anticipation of that work being ready for us to start construction. We anticipate most of that work will be in place by the end of September, and we will be testing and commissioning our systems the last quarter of this year in anticipation of receiving a temporary certificate of occupancy by the end of December. That will allow us to start outfitting in the building and moving forward and getting ready for Columbia;
- We will start installing the 100-ton and 170-ton cranes this summer also; that really is our critical path; we’ve got to have those cranes in place so we can move cylinders around inside the building;
- We’re looking forward to a Final Certificate of Occupancy on the first of February of next year.
I walked the building with Devin Xenelis yesterday, and you can see the amount of work that’s actually going on internally with all the piping, cabling and ventilation ducting, so appreciate that update. The overall Columbia program is something we’ve been working on for 15 years now, so it’s exciting to think about how the SYAB is going to be open in less than a year. This week our new barge Holland made its first trip up to Quonset Point. I know it was there this morning, and we continue construction on our floating dry dock, which is named the Atlas, down at Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana. Those are the same shipbuilders who built the barge for us.
In addition to the South Yard, you’re doing some work with your team on a couple of buildings that we broke ground on in Groton last year—the new Emergency Control Center and the COATS pre-commissioning unit crew building in the South Yard. Let’s talk about those buildings.
As I said, 2022 is an exciting year. We are rapidly approaching completion of the ECC building; we anticipate completion by the end of July. The building is weather-tight, we are installing windows, exterior insulation and in the next week or two the metal panels. We are nearly completed with framing the interior and have started hanging drywall. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing and life-safety systems are progressing very well. We’re looking forward to completing that project and moving people in in September.
We have also started construction for the COATS/PCU Building. Excavation of the perimeter footers is complete, and we have started excavation of the interior footers. We are placing concrete for those footers as we speak. Steel is due to arrive at the end of April with erection beginning the first of May. The project is projected to be complete by the end of March of 2023. When you think about it, three buildings in Groton starting in the end of July, end of December and then March—it’s going to be a different skyline here.
No question; the skyline is already changing and will continue to change. Great to hear the progress, and I can’t wait to have those buildings complete. We’re looking forward to having a significantly modern facility to support particularly our ability to respond to potential emergencies. So that ECC building is one I’m eager to get moved into.
Now, moving from Connecticut, let’s talk a little bit about what we’re doing up at Quonset Point. We’ve changed the skyline there in many ways. In 2020 we completed buildings 9A and 9B, which gave us an additional eight acres of production space for Columbia and the VPM modules. It’s getting pretty full; there’s still some room to expand into I think. Let’s update folks on the building construction status at QP, including the new advance manufacturing project, what we call our AMP building. That building will enable QP to supplement our missile tube manufacturing capability.
Yes, we continue to change the landscape at Quonset Point.
The AMP project is going very well. The erection of steel is about 50% complete. We anticipate starting to hang insulated metal panels in the next couple of weeks. We are on track for a December 2022 delivery of this building with first use anticipated in the second quarter of 2023.
We’ve also commenced design of the final phase of the 9-series building, which will add another five acres of production space for Columbia and VPM. We anticipate a late-fall construction start, we have demolished Building 16, so we’ve already changed the skyline. The building is scheduled for delivery early in the second quarter of 2024.
We have also started design on the third Coatings facility. The construction schedule is similar to 9C. We will start the building in early winter and complete that project also late second quarter 2024.
Thanks for the update Joe. And Happy Birthday, I know you celebrated your birthday earlier this week. Thanks for taking the time to share the progress on a lot of these construction projects that have been underway for quite some time.
I think it’s important for people to understand that General Dynamics has a lot of decisions that they can make with where to invest their capital money. I think everybody here should be proud of the fact that General Dynamics has chosen to invest nearly $2 billion dollars here at Electric Boat, because they believe in our future, they believe in the work we do and the importance of submarines to our national security. You should be proud to know that your corporation is investing a considerable amount of money in our future. I’m looking forward to celebrating all of these building openings over the next couple of years in Groton and Quonset Point.
If you can’t tell from me, I will tell you, it’s an exciting time to be a shipbuilder—we’re about 17% complete already on Columbia and advance construction for the second ship, Wisconsin, began last May. So it’s already here. I’ve asked you all this question before, and I’ll ask it again now—where else would you rather be than right here, right now at Electric Boat?
Thanks everyone; we’ll talk again soon.
Kevin
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