G Tower News

HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division has completed the dry dock portion of the refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).Following the recent flooding of more than 100 million gallons of water into the dry dock, USS John C. Stennis was moved to an outfitting berth at the shipyard, where the remainder of the RCOH work and testing will be completed.During the dry dock phase of the RCOH, USS John C. Stennis received significant upgrades and began an extensive overhaul process, both inside and outside the ship.

With efforts underway to clean up thousands of tons of steel debris from the collapsed bridge in Baltimore's harbor, Maryland Governor Wes Moore on Sunday urged Republicans to work with Democrats to approve the federal funding needed for rebuilding the bridge and to get the port economy back on its feet.Baltimore's Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed early on Tuesday morning, killing six road workers, when a container ship nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower lost power and crashed into a support pylon.

The biggest operational crane on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard towered over Baltimore's port on Friday, ready to begin clearing the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge days after a cargo ship crashed into it, sending the span crashing into the harbor.Crews were still surveying the damage as of midday Friday. The crane, which can lift up to 1,000 tons, arrived late Thursday night and will probably start hauling debris out of the water on Saturday morning, according to U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Carmen Carver.A second crane is en route and expected to arrive soon to assist the effort…

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will initiate the environmental review of a proposed wind energy project offshore New Jersey.At its closest point, the approximately 81,129-acre lease area, OCS-A 0549, known as Atlantic Shores North, is located 8.4 miles from the New Jersey coast and approximately 60 miles from New York.The Atlantic Shores’ proposal currently includes installation of up to 157 wind turbine generators, eight offshore substations, one permanent meteorological tower, and two temporary metocean buoys - for a total of up to 168 offshore structures.

Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein Verft has signed contracts with J.P. Morgan Asset Management for offshore wind Construction Service Operation Vessel (CSOV) newbuilds.In 2023, Bernhard Schulte Offshore ordered the design and construction of two such vessels from Ulstein under a contract which included options for two plus two vessels.These options have been transferred to institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, who declared the first two.The CSOVs will be…

Zinus announced it has won a contract to supply its autonomous charging solution for a new zero-emissions, lightweight Ro-Pax ferry.The endeavor is led by shipbuilder Incat Tasmania, and commissioned by their South American customer Buquebús. The ferry will operate between Argentina and Uruguay, providing efficient and eco-friendly transportation services to as many as 2,100 passengers and 225 vehicles.Zinus will be supplying its autonomous charging solution, which includes the SWC200 Onboard Unit and ZPP800 charging tower solution.

Scandlines’ new zero direct emissions freight ferry has been launched at the Cemre Shipyard in Turkey.The ferry will be name Futura and deployed on the Fehmarn Belt between Germany and Denmark (Puttgarden-Rødby) in 2024. It will have a 10MWh energy storage system, the world's largest lithium-ion battery bank to date, which has been supplied by Swiss manufacturer, Leclanché.The 8.6 meter high ferry charger tower, developed by the German company, StemmannTechnik, is being prepared for installation at ferry berth 3 in Denmark’s Rødbyhavn.

The first turbine has been installed at the South Fork Wind Farm offshore New York, developer Ørsted announced on Monday.The first of South Fork Wind’s 12 Siemens Gamesa wind turbine generators was hoisted into place by the offshore construction team at the project site 35 miles off Montauk, N.Y. Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel, the Aeolus, is installing the turbines. Turbine installation involves using a crane to place the steel turbine tower onto the foundation. The nacelle and rotor are then installed on top of the tower.

Dutch heave compensation specialist Seaqualize executed the world’s first offshore transfer lifts of wind turbine components from a heaving supply vessel.The company’s newly developed offshore lifting device, the Heave Chief 1100, is being deployed by DEME Offshore US to instal the first turbines at Vineyard Wind together with the feeder barge solution developed by DEME Offshore US, with partners Barge Master, Foss Maritime and Seaqualize, and the operators and equipment from…

When asked about the top issues facing shipbuilders, executives at the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) listed a number of topics and concerns. SCA is the only national trade association representing U.S. shipyards engaged in the building and repairing of military and other government and commercial vessels, and companies providing goods and services to the shipbuilding industry.Shutdowns have consequencesMatthew Paxton and Paula Zorensky are, respectively, SCA President and Vice President. Their top federal concern at the end of September? A U.S.

The steel-cutting ceremony was held Tuesday for the first of two TWIN X-STERN CSOV vessels for Bernhard Schulte Offshore in CRIST, Poland.The vessel's hull will take shape in Gdynia before being transported to Ulstein Verft for further outfitting, testing, and completion.The CSOVs will have a centrally located motion-compensated gangway for walk-to-work operations, a lift tower for the transfer of personnel and cargo, and the capacity to accommodate 132 people on board.Credit: UlsteinThe vessels, being built to support offshore wind operations, have been designed by Ulstein Design & Solutions

The first GE Haliade-X wind turbine generator has been installed at the Vineyard Wind 1 project in the US.The completed turbine is comprised of one tower, three blades, and one nacelle, and the fully assembled machine represents the largest turbine in the western world, with a nameplate capacity of 13MW, capable of providing power to more than 6,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts, says project partners Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).The project will consist of 62 wind turbines to generate 806MW…

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Vice Chairman Ga Sam-hyeon has received the Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit for his contribution to national industrial development.The award was made in recognition of his achievements as a manager who contributed to the development and take-off of Korea's shipbuilding industry.The award was presented at the 20th Shipbuilding and Maritime Day Ceremony held in Seoul on September 20.Ka joined the ship sales division of HD…

Dutch offshore survey firm Fugro will convert the Fugro Resilience and the Topaz Endurance, two ULSTEIN PX121 platform supply vessels (PSVs), to geotechnical vessels, targeting their deployment in the global offshore renewable energy market.Fugro acquired the two platform supply vessels, the Topaz Endurance and the Topaz Energy (renamed Fugro Resilience), in February 2023.Ulstein Design & Solutions AS is responsible for the redesign of the two vessels, and on September 22, 2023, Fugro awarded Ulstein Verft a contract to convert the Fugro Resilience. Both vessels were built in 2015.

Avangrid, Inc., a U.S. offshore wind developer and part of the Spanish Iberdrola Group on Wednesday announced the start of the wind turbine installation campaign for Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1 project offshore Massachusetts, the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. The installation campaign follows the transportation earlier this week of the first GE Haliade-X Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) from the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal to the wind energy development area more than 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.“Over the past year…

Dutch offshore access provider Ampelmann announced it has signed a new contract to build two more W-type systems for Ulstein, on behalf of one of Germany’s major shipowners. This is Ampelmann's second contract with Ulstein to provide an integrated gangway system on two new vessels.The two W-types are estimated to be delivered by 2025 with the contracts including two systems firm, followed by a potential two plus two in the client options. These systems are intended for offshore wind use to assist in the transferring of both personnel and cargo from vessel onto offshore platforms.

As the devotion to more sustainable shipping expands and regulations become more stringent, the demand for lower emissions operations continues to increase. As a result, the marine industry is confronted with the challenge of large-scale electrification as an alternative energy solution.For electric ferries, one developing technology is Rapid Charging Systems (RCS), which transfer electrical power from the shore to a vessel at a high rate. These charging systems establish a ship-to-shore connection quickly…

HII announced its Newport News Shipbuilding division partnered with the Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC) to donate and sink a former dry dock caisson gate offshore, giving it new life as part of an artificial reef.Caisson gates are used at the harbor end of a dry dock, with pipes inside allowing for water from the James River to enter when NNS needs to flood the dry dock. This particular gate, originally put into service at NNS in 1967, was part of a dry dock no longer in use at the shipyard.NNS crews worked to prepare the caisson gate…

Germany-based Bernhard Schulte Offshore has awarded Norway's Ulstein Verft a contract for the design and construction of two Commissioning Service Operation Vessels (CSOVs) of the ULSTEIN SX222 design. The contract includes options for four additional vessels.The vessels, which utilize the TWIN X-STERN design, feature two sterns and main propellers at both fore and aft, which, Bernard Schulte Offshore says, makes them an ideal choice for Dynamic Positioning (DP) operations. "Regardless of whether the vessels are facing towards or away from the weather…

Hubbard, a new ferry built in 2019 for Alaska's Marine Highway System (AMHS), was formally christened this week after a change of plans put the vessel's entry into service on hold.The vessel is the second of two Alaska class ferries designed by Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group and constructed at Vigor Shipyard in Ketchikan, Alaska. Construction of both vessels began in October 2014. The series' first ferry, Tazlina, was christened in 2018, and Hubbard was completed in 2019.Intended to operate as day boats to serve the AMHS Lynn Canal route between Juneau…

Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola said this week it was making progress in the construction of Vineyard Wind I, the largest commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, with the receipt of the first shipment of components for the 62 wind turbines that will make up the farm at the port of New Bedford. Specifically, the shipment consisted of the tower sections, manufactured in Portugal. The components arrived in the U.S. aboard the heavy load carrier UHL Felicity.The…

GTT and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) have received an approval in principle (AIP) from Lloyd’s Register for the application of a new design of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier featuring GTT’s three-tank concept equipped with the Mark III Flex membrane containment system. This approval is the result of a joint development project (JDP) initiated in 2022, aiming at designing a new generation of LNG carrier.The JDP study has demonstrated several benefits of this new design for ship-owners and operators.

Commissioning Service Operation Vessel (CSOV) REM Power was named at a ceremony in Aalesund, Norway on Friday.The Rem Power, owned by Rem Purus, designed to offer services and maintenance operations at offshore wind farms, was named in the center of Ålesund in front of shipbuilder VARD’s headquarters.This is the first of two CSOVs VARD is delivering to Rem Purus.The REM Power is a CSOV of the VARD 4 19 design, developed by Vard Design. The vessel is equipped to provide services during both construction…