General Dynamics NASSCO, San Diego, has taken delivery of a new floating drydock to support maintenance and repair projects.
The 830'x177'x69' drydock was built by Gemak in Yalova, Turkey, and transported 13,500 nautical miles to the United States aboard Boskalis' 902'x246' BOKA Vanguard, one of the world's largest semi-submersible heavy-lift ships.
The move was managed by Kuehne+Nagel, which routed the drydock through the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Due to its size, the BOKA Vanguard could not transit the Panama Canal.
"It took months of planning, designing, measuring, calculating, checking, and then re-checking, re-calculating, to ensure the two sea giants could become one and sail safely," the company said in a statement.
“We had checklists. Then we had checklists for the checklists: every smallest detail accounted for, nothing left to chance,” said Aliye Erkan Bıyık, national project logistics manager at Kuehne+Nagel.
The new drydock replaces the 40-year-old NASSCO Builder. With a lifting capacity of 35,000 tons, it enables NASSCO to repair any U.S. Navy ship except Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
The new drydock features fully electric wing wall cranes, LED lighting throughout, non-copper-containing hull coating, and is more efficient and cleaner for the environment, according to NASSCO.
