Austal Announces Shipyard Expansion

Austal USA announced the start of design for a new manufacturing facility, part of a major expansion for its shipyard in Mobile. It will sit south of Austal’s current waterfront facility and include a new assembly building, waterfront improvements and a new shiplift system. To begin this summer, it will also include a shiplift that will launch ships as they are completed in the assembly buildings. The system will also enable retrieving ships and bringing them back to the land-side facility. The assembly building will consist of three bays and enable erection of recently awarded steel-ship contracts, in addition to modules for submarine and other surface-ship programs. It will be approximately 400 by 480 ft and provide more than 192,000 ft2 of covered manufacturing space occupying 4.5 acres. Austal has partnered with Pearlson & Pearlson Inc., program manager and owner’s representative; Kiewit Infrastructure South Co., lead for design and construction; and Pearlson Shiplift Corp., designer and builder of the shiplift system, to execute the project.