Memphis District to get new dry dock

Published March 11, 2020
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IN THE PHOTO, (left to right) Navigation Chief Matthew Young, Plant Section Chief Kevin Woods, Keith Bromke, Marine Design Center; Ilya Mouravieff, Marine Design Center; Ian Lawson, Bristol Harbor Group; Cory Wood, Bristol Harbor Group; and Infrastructure and Safety Program Manager Timothy Marshall.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District's Ensley Engineer Yard is well on its way to acquiring a new dry dock to take the place of the current Dry Dock 1015 within the next few years.

Dry Docks are structures used to service marine vessels from the Memphis District as well as vessels and barges from other Districts and sister agencies. The dry dock is flooded in a controlled manner to allow vessels to float into it. The dock’s ballast tanks are then drained, allowing the vessel to come to rest on the dry dock for hull maintenance and repair.

“This will be a ‘medium’ sized dry dock with a lifting capacity between 1600 to 2000 Tons,”  Infrastructure and Safety Program Manager Timothy Marshall said. “It will be utilized to dock vessels bigger than what Dry Dock 1015 can.”

Members of the Corps, contractor Bristol Harbor Group and members of the USACE Marine Design Center met the first week of March to discuss the ongoing design efforts and other details involving the dry dock acquisition.

“We use current dry docks approximately 310 days a year, so getting this new one is incredibly important to the future maintenance of not only our vessels here in the Memphis District but also to those belonging to sister districts,” Marshall explained.

Complete dry dock acquisition is tentatively set for February of 2022.