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Stanchions improve Submarine access to Dry Dock 4 at Pearl Harbor

NAVSEA News Wire

Release Date: 4/16/2004

By PHNSY and IMF Public Affairs

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - Last summer, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) leased Dry Dock 4 to Honolulu Shipyard, Inc. (HSI) so the contractor could repair the containership SS Matsonia. That public-private partnership benefited the Shipyard in January when the Yard wanted stanchions installed along 500 feet of ledge in Dry Dock 4. The job did not require additional Shipyard funding since HSI did the work as a partial repayment for the leasing of the dry dock.

Lt. Cmdr. John Markowicz, project superintendent for the USS Chicago (SSN 721) availability, asked that the stanchions be built along the ledge on the port side. The ledge is about 25 feet above the dry dock floor. The stanchions, when augmented with removable horizontal railings, make it much safer for personnel when they land a brow connecting the ledge to a submarine.

The brow and ledge provide another way to get on and off the submarine. Dockmaster Daniel Hetrick noted it also enables Sailors and Shipyard workers access to and egress from the boat 8 to 10 hours earlier when a submarine docked.

Hetrick explained that Dry Dock 4 is so deep that a brow cannot run directly from the top of the dry dock wall to a submarine on the blocks on the dock floor. A stairwell tower has to be installed with an upper brow from the top of the dry dock to the tower and a lower brow from the tower to the boat.

The tower and its brows are put in place only after the dry dock has been completely dewatered and dried, but the brow from the ledge can be safely set up as soon as the submarine lands on the blocks.

Markowicz said the new stanchions- designed by Facilities and Equipment Maintenance/Tool Design Shop. (Code 910), and installed by HSI - " fit right into the vision of restoring Dry Dock 4's facilities" and directly benefited the docking evolutions for USS Olympia (SSN 717) and USS Chicago (SSN 721).