Harbor Island Facility News

Vigor announced it completed a nine-month docking selected restricted availability (DSRA) on USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), returning it to service on-schedule.Work performed includes overhauling machinery, repairing the underwater hull and implementing significant renovations to the ship's superstructure.The contract, which was awarded to Vigor after a successful challenge last year, marks the third DSRA Vigor has completed at Pearl Harbor since 2021. Vigor previously competed DSRAs for USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) and USS William P.

Vigor reports it has completed the modernization of USS McCampbell (DDG 85) at Swan Island, sending the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer on to its new homeport at Naval Station Everett, Wash. The 18-month, more than $155 million project was the largest ever completed by Vigor’s Ship Repair team, and the largest of its kind at Swan Island in nearly 30 years, the company said.“Our skilled workers at Swan Island were honored to support the U.S. Navy and get USS McCampbell back into service,” said Adam Beck, Vigor Executive Vice President of Ship Repair.

Vigor was awarded a $254,566,431.36 firm-fixed-price contract for the execution of USS Chosin (CG 65) and USS Cape ST. George (CG 71) Modernization Periods (MODPRD). The contract includes options, which if exercised would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $303,677,110.Work will include a combination of maintenance, modernization and repair. The modernizations will keep these ships combat effective to support fleet operations for many years to come.Work will be performed at Vigor's Harbor Island facility in Seattle…

The U.S. Coast Guard’s polar medium icebreaker Healy arrived at Vigor’s Seattle shipyard in early January for maintenance.The $7.3 million contract includes sea valve renewal and overhaul, bow thruster modifications, ballast tank and underwater hull paint preservation and various machinery overhauls.The vessel will be at Vigor’s Harbor Island facility through June 2019.The 20-year-old Healy was built at Louisiana's former Avondale Shipyard and commissioned in 1999. It is one of two icebreakers currently in operation for the U.S. Coast Guard, along with 42-year-old heavy icebreaker Polar Star.

Diverse Newbuild & Repair Business Buoys 2018The year 2018 is off to good start at Vigor. The Harbor Island facility welcomed a new drydock christened the Evolution. The $20 million Evolution is the third drydock at Vigor’s Seattle facility and largest in the Puget Sound region, measuring 640 x 115.5 ft. with a lift capacity of 22,000 LT.Other investments in Seattle include a buildout of a dedicated aluminum production facility which greatly expands Vigor’s fabrication capabilities and capacity for workboats…

Argo is now in operation on the Alameda/Oakland routes in San Francisco.Vigor recently delivered Argo, the third of four all aluminum, 400 passenger ferries to the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) in San Francisco, Calif.The hull was constructed at Vigor Ballard and the superstructure in Vigor’s new aluminum fabrication bay at its Harbor Island facility. “The new fabrication bay significantly expands Vigor’s production capabilities and capacity for our portfolio of aluminum workboats, high performance military craft and state of the art ferries like Argo,” said Tim Kolb, Vigor Puget Sound General Manager. “It was fitting to have this award-winning design be our inaugural vessel for the new facility.”Like its sister ships…

Vigor built on its ongoing investments in critical infrastructure in the Puget Sound in 2017 with the $20 million investment in another drydock. At 640 ft. long with a clear width of 116 ft., the new dock will be the third, and largest, at Vigor’s Harbor Island shipyard. The drydock is expected to be operational in early first quarter 2018 and is part of Vigor’s ongoing commitment to make Harbor Island a primary destination for ship repair and conversion on the West Coast for both commercial and government customers.

Looking toward the future and with a weather eye on what could come next, Oregon-based Vigor Industrial launched a six-month training program this July in welding, fabricating and fitting with South Seattle Community College at a new center on Harbor Island. Vigor acquired the site overlooking downtown Seattle when it bought Todd Pacific Shipyards in 2011. And, as an active bidder for the U.S. Coast Guard’s coveted Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) program, Vigor also knows that they’ll need to perform when the time comes. A skilled workforce will be an important part of that equation.

Receive Green Light to Begin Building Another. Shipbuilding to Generate More Than 500 Jobs at Two Dozen State Firms. One completed, one to begin. Even as VIGOR Industrial this week delivered the final new 64-car ferry to Washington State Ferries, the company’s US Fab shipbuilding division received a green light from the state to begin constructing the system’s next vessel. On Monday, the companies delivered the state’s newest ferry, Kennewick, to WSF, three months ahead of schedule.

Kevin Quigley, who built VIGOR’s Everett Shipyard into one of the largest dockside repair centers in the Pacific Northwest, has been named president of VIGOR’s US Fab division. Quigley will oversee all of VIGOR’s new ship construction including ferries, advanced Coast Guard cutters, barges, fishing and cargo vessels. As US Fab president, he also will direct the company’s growing land-based and alternative energy fabrication projects. “The people who’ve built this company have been building ships for nearly a hundred years,” Quigley said.

J. Ray McDermott, Inc., a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc., and Bay Ltd. have formed a strategic alliance to pursue fabrication projects in the offshore oil and gas industry, using McDermott's Harbor Island facility near Corpus Christi, Texas. Under the alliance, J. Ray McDermott will provide overall project management, engineering and procurement services, as well as the assembly areas, lifting equipment dredged slip and bulkhead at Harbor Island. Bay, which is the largest non-government employer of skilled craftspeople in the Coastal Bend area of Texas, will provide fabrication and construction services, labor, and equipment to support fabrication of large platform topsides at Harbor Island. Both companies are recognized as safety leaders in the construction industry.

With the next "offshore boom" looming on the horizon, many of the vessel repair and conversion yards, particularly but not limited to the Gulf of Mexico region, are projecting good times in the coming year. Quite simply, the sustained high price of oil will eventually push oil majors - which have been sedate to date due to continued consolidation and a fear of extending too far, too soon - to start spending again on exploration and production, particularly in deepwaters. In conjunction with this is the expected decision of the U.S. MMS on the use of Floating Production Systems in the Gulf of Mexico, a development which will further drive down the cost of recovering product from record depths and have a resulting positive effect on the companies which build…