Ship Builder Case Study

The Client

Northrop Gunman Ship Systems on behalf of Roy Anderson Corp

 

The Project

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems headquartered in Pascagoula, Mississippi is one of the nation’s leading full-service systems companies for the design, engineering, and construction of major surface ships for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and international navies. The Pascagoula facility was responsible for building the amphibious assault ship, the Makin Island — the largest ever built at 844 feet long. In addition, they also built the second Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN 79). With all of this activity, the facility needed to undergo significant improvements to handle current and future contracts for increasingly large surface vessels. Roy Anderson Corp of Gulfport, Mississippi was awarded the contract to facilitate these improvements including major renovations to the concrete and steel rail systems necessary to move ship components around the yard during vessel construction.

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The Plan

Because much of the concrete in place prior to the renovation needed to be torn out, deep concrete sawing would be necessary during the demolition process. In addition, in order to secure the new steel rails with anchor bolts to the new concrete, thousands of holes — some as large as 10 inches in diameter — needed to be drilled.

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The Process

At the start of this project, Diamond mobilized 14 equipment operators and 8 slab saws between Christmas and New Year’s to saw over 7,000 linear feet of concrete as deep as 24 inches thick. This sawing needed to be completed within the 5-day window allowed by the client so that the substantial demolition of the old concrete and existing rail system could start. Diamond utilized diesel-powered equipment manufactured by Husqvarna with a generating capacity of 84 horsepower at the blade. Subsequent sawing was necessary at various tunnel and slab intersections where Diamond combined slab sawing, wall sawing, and chainsawing to precisely cut the concrete, where necessary, for demolition. Diamond also cored over 100 ten-inch holes in 12-inch concrete walls for dowel sheer pins. In addition, Diamond drilled and epoxied over 11,500 7/8” dowel holes for securing the newly installed rail to the concrete in 3 bays. Diamond surpassed the client-mandated schedule of coring 600 holes per day

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The Outcome

According to George Zorn, Estimator II with Roy Anderson Corp, working with Diamond during the estimating and bidding process “was great.” “Quoting was fast and Diamond understood the scope of work being quoted,” said Zorn. “A lot of times contractors in their trade don’t fully understand the work that needs to be performed. I look forward to bidding projects with Diamond again.”

 

Jason Taylor, Project Manager with Roy Anderson Corp also gave Diamond high marks when he said: “None of the other concrete cutting companies I have used in the past have been as professional. Diamond came to my project with up-to-date equipment and knew what they were doing. They regularly beat our own internal production estimates, in some cases drilling twice as many holes in a given time period than we expected. The Gulf Coast needs this company to stay.”