BAE Alabama Wins Dredger Barge Contracts

BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards Alabama wins Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. contract to build dredging dump scows

The announcement came at the christening of the American Phoenix, a 616-foot-long, 105-foot-wide chemical tanker that BAE built for owner Mid-Ocean Tanker Company LLC of South Norwalk, Conn., a joint venture between private equity firm Alterna Capital Partners and Mid-Ocean Marine, a shipping company also based in South Norwalk.

BAE Systems said the shipyard has picked up a contract from Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., to build two dump scows, a project that is expected to add about 125 workers to the company's Mobile shipyard.

Vic Rhoades, director and general manager at BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards Alabama, said the contract also includes the option for the shipyard to build two additional dump scows, vessels used to transport and dump sediments acquired while dredging waterways.

The 295-foot-long and 62-foot-wide dump scows will be built concurrently, with completion slated for 2013. The additional dump scows, if built, would be completed in 2014.

Rhoades said that the completion and delivery of the American Phoenix, the largest vessel ever built in Alabama, is a major event for shipbuilding in the Mobile area and the construction of the vessel has helped the company secure follow-on, new construction opportunities.