Project Team
Owner: U.S. Navy
Contractor: Military Construction Corp. (Mil-Con), Jacksonville

The purpose of this project was to upgrade the existing infrastructure of the Mayport Naval Station aircraft carrier pier to accommodate nuclear- as well as conventional-powered aircraft carriers. This included upgrading and/or replacing electric, water, sewer, oily waste and steam laterals.

The unique aspect of this project was the method used to furnish two 600-amp, 26.4-kV electrical circuits to the pier. Using horizontal directional drilling technology, the construction team drilled under the turning basin, through which three 6-in. pipes were installed. The electrical circuits were installed in two of the three pipes, leaving one as a spare for future use.

The directional drilling measured 2,200 ft. in length, with an ultimate depth of 125 ft. The use of HDD shortened the overall distance the electrical circuits had to traverse from their point of origination at the municipal power source to the carrier pier. Carrying the electrical circuits under water helped reduce costs for the Navy as compared to the alternative of an overland, duct-bank, manhole system.

An additional challenge came from the fact that the turning basin was located at an active Naval station, with numerous ships moving in and out on a continual basis.

The second greatest challenge was the accelerated time schedule for the project. All construction work needed to be completed during deployment of the USS Kennedy. The project award date was Sept. 13, 2001, and scheduled deployment was for the following March. The contractor used those six months for planning and design, though design work would continue throughout the construction phase of this design-build project.

The day the USS Kennedy deployed, work commenced. The originally scheduled completion date was September 2002. However, the owner accelerated that date to August 2002. Military Construction Corp. (Mil-Con) officials considered the project's schedule to be "extremely aggressive," considering that utility laterals on the pier, such as potable water, sanitary sewer, oily waste and steam needed to be replaced.

This involved removing the paving and massive amounts of materials, as well as the old systems to make way for the new. That, combined with the resurfacing of approximately 12,000 sq. yds. of paving, had to be accomplished prior to the Kennedy's return.

Mil-Con's Mark Thompson credited the close working relationships between the owner and the rest of the construction team for the project's successful completion.

"Due to our past experience with Art Mosely, the Navy's construction representative, we had developed an extremely high level of trust," said Thompson. "We could go to him with any problems and he would work with us to reach a solution." Thompson also cited the efforts of Lt. Jorge Cuadros, regional officer in charge of construction, as well as Brian Price, the Navy's project manager.