Navy starts work on new Wash. carrier pier - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Navy starts work on new Wash. carrier pier

BREMERTON, Wash. — Construction has started on a new pier at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to better handle the Navy’s newer aircraft carriers.

Shipyard commander Capt. Mark Whitney says the $123 million project will replace a 60-year-old pier built to handle carriers from the post-World War II era. The new pier will be more than twice as wide and more than 1,300 feet long. It will be able to hold a crane and other equipment needed to work on today’s Nimitz-class carriers and ships planned for the future.

With Wednesday’s groundbreaking, the Navy wants much of the work completed by October 2010, when the Nimitz arrives for a yearlong overhaul. The entire project is to be completed by January 2012.