Seaspan, Stantec Celebrate Completion of Outfitting Pier for Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy

Stantec, a leader in sustainable design and engineering, and Seaspan, a leader in Canada’s shipbuilding industry, are celebrating the completion of a new outfitting pier at Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards. The new outfitting pier measures 272 meters by 19 meters (892 feet by 63 feet) and is designed for large navy and coast guard vessels. 

The pier is currently facilitating outfitting of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Joint Support Ship, HMCS Protecteur, the largest vessel in the fleet. Stantec provided planning, preliminary engineering, detailed design and construction services on the Seaspan facility, which is supporting Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS).

The steel and concrete pier is designed with modern utilities, heavy load capacity, and environmental safeguards, replacing a timber pier from 1966. The pier is engineered to support the demands of heavy outfitting operations and is resilient to future sea level rise considerations, extreme storm surge events, and seismic hazards in one of Canada’s highest seismic zones.

To support key ship outfitting and maintenance operations, the pier is designed to accommodate integrated tower cranes, civil utilities/drainage, vehicle traffic, service towers, and specialized shipyard equipment with high live and dynamic loads. To address potential future needs, the pier also includes crane pockets that can be configured in different ways to support outfitting and production, as well as different shore power capabilities, to support different ship requirements.

Seaspan was selected as the non-combat shipbuilder for the Government of Canada under the NSS in 2011. The NSS is the federal government’s long-term plan to renew RCN and Coast Guard fleets.

The outfitting pier project commenced in 2020 with the environmental review permitting process, with construction starting in 2023. Stantec delivered detailed multidisciplinary design, while supporting planning, permitting, procurement, and construction through the project lifecycle.

Shipbuilding and port infrastructure is seeing significant growth on Canada’s west coast. There have been approximately $10.25 billion in contracts awarded to Pacific-area companies under the NSS.