JMS Naval Architects designed a 500-ton lift capacity floating dry dock for Biblia, Inc., Marine Towing and Transportation of Savannah, GA. Biblia competitively awarded construction of the dry dock to Conrad Shipyard of Morgan City, Louisiana. The dry dock was launched last week.
Biblia owns and operates a fleet of tugs and barges, providing marine transportation, bed-leveling, agitation dredging, and dragging services on the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and Western Rivers of the United States. Biblia will use the dry dock to service their own tugboats and offer similar repair and maintenance services to other vessel owners in the area from their Savannah River facilities.
The new dry dock, replaces Biblia’s existing dry dock, is 120’ long, 60’ wide, has a 6’ deep pontoon, and 14’ tall wing walls. The dock will be used primarily for hauling tug boats with a maximum length of 120 feet and draft of 10 feet. The dry dock design incorporates a shore power connection, onboard generator, and individual pumps. One end of the dry dock is raked to facilitate towing the dock.
JMS developed a complete engineering and design package including all structural design, stability, and outfitting meeting the requirements of the ABS Rules for Building and Classing Steel Floating Dry Docks. Systems include the ballast system, seachest arrangement, electrical, and pump and discharge piping. JMS also designed the power system including generator arrangement, fuel tank arrangement, and electrical and piping system one-lines.
In 2019, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced $19.6 million in grants to support improvements at 28 small shipyards across the U.S. Of that total, $1.3 million helped fund the design and construction of Biblia’s new 500-ton floating dry dock.
