Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic awarded a $46,753,394 firm-fixed-price option under a previously awarded contract with Konecranes Nuclear Equipment and Services, LLC, based in New Berlin, Wisconsin. This award, made in coordination with the Navy Crane Center, will design, fabricate, assemble, shop test, deliver, install, inspect, field test, and commission a 175-ton-capacity heavy-lift portal crane for Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) as part of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP).
With delivery expected in April 2028, the new crane will provide heavy lift capability in the large dock area of NNSY, including at the Navy’s only east coast aircraft carrier-capable dry dock.
"This crane will provide the shipyard with never-before-available lift capacity in the large dock area to support the Navy's evolving needs for aircraft carrier and submarine maintenance, modernization, and inactivation," said Mark Edelson, program executive officer for industrial infrastructure, who oversees SIOP.
The new crane will lift shop stores, parts and materials that are critical to return ships and submarines to the fleet, as well as radar arrays and antennas at extreme elevations and lifts of increasingly heavy propeller shafts at the lowest levels of the dry dock. The new heavy-lift portal crane will be capable of these lifts without the need for tandem crane lifts or additional crane equipment.
The crane will feature a portal design with a rotating superstructure, luffing boom, main hoist, and auxiliary hoist, engineered to meet NNSY's specific dimensional and functional requirements. The crane’s flexibility contributes to SIOP’s mission to increase shipyard productivity. Work will be performed in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
The new crane will be delivered “Special Purpose Service”-capable. This designation will enable it to support the Navy's most critical maintenance operations. It will be the only crane in the large dock area at NNSY delivered with this designation.
"This crane will help the shipyard workforce do what they do best, performing depot-level maintenance and upgrades that will ultimately get ships and submarines back to the fleet where and when they are needed," said Edelson.
This award, funded by Fiscal Year 2025 Other Procurement, Navy, appropriations, increases the total contract value to $229,088,210. Congress’s continuing support of SIOP has enabled the program to utilize acquisition strategies that maximize serial procurements for commonality among shipyards and predictable pricing.
SIOP is a comprehensive, long-term recapitalization effort that is delivering integrated investments in infrastructure and industrial plant equipment at the Navy’s four public shipyards, expanding shipyard capacity and optimizing shipyard configuration to meet the Navy’s nuclear-powered fleet maintenance requirements. Recapitalizing the shipyards' century-old infrastructure increases maintenance throughput and improves quality of service for the Navy’s 37,000 shipyard employees.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard, located in Portsmouth, Virginia, is one of the Navy’s oldest and largest shipyards, specializing in the maintenance, modernization, and overhaul of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines.
Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command is the naval shore facilities, base operating support, and expeditionary engineering systems command that delivers life-cycle technical and acquisition solutions aligned to fleet and Marine Corps priorities.