Kittery shipyard may receive $475M to upgrade infrastructure

COURTESY / PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD The U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee advanced a bill that includes $475 million for infrastructure upgrades at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

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By Staff

The U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee this week advanced a bill that includes $475 million for infrastructure upgrades at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

The fiscal year 2022 MilCon-VA funding bill passed the committee by a vote of 25-5.

The yard, which maintains and overhauls Navy submarines, will use the money for its Dry Dock No. 1 extension project. Currently, Dry Dock No. 1 can only accommodate Los Angeles-class submarines, which means it will be rendered obsolete when those submarines are removed from service in the 2030s.

Failure to modernize the dry dock would result in 20 deferred submarine maintenance availabilities through 2040, according to a news release.

“The importance of our naval assets to our national security and global stability has never been greater,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, said in the release.

“I strongly advocated for this investment at PNSY so that the shipyard’s highly skilled employees can continue to successfully carry out their essential mission to maintain our submarine fleet.”

The first major element of the dry dock upgrade arrived in June, when Pittsfield-based construction contractor Cianbro Corp. delivered a 5,000-ton entrance structure as part of its $158 million contract to build a “superflood basin” and a new portal crane system at the dry dock.

The project is one of the largest ever at the yard. Upgrades will ensure that the shipyard can efficiently dock both the Navy's Los Angeles-class and Virginia-class submarines for maintenance and renovation.

In addition to the work at Dry Dock No. 1, the bill provides $21.2 million for the Maine National Guard, funding a new vehicle maintenance shop in Saco for combat vehicles and equipment.