Gray and Austal USA Commemorate Partnership with Bell-Ringing Ceremony

“With a relationship dating back to 2008, it’s exciting to once again partner on a history-making initiative with Austal USA,” says Drew Romans, regional manager of Gray’s Southeast office located in Birmingham, AL. “It’s an honor for us to play a role in Austal USA’s efforts to strengthen our military. It’s very rewarding for our teams.”

At Gray, traditions have always been at the center of who we are; they bring us together and reinforce our core values. To celebrate a project and partnership, the Gray team holds a bell-ringing ceremony, in which everyone involved in winning the contract gathers to ring a large bell that can be heard throughout the office. The Southeast office project team rang the bell to commemorate this exciting project. 

This new facility will be located alongside the company’s existing aluminum construction operations in Mobile, AL. The company’s module manufacturing facility will be split in half, with a wall dividing the steel side and aluminum side to keep components and tools in their proper areas. The addition of steel capability ensures that Austal USA will remain a major contributor to the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base. 

Some interesting facts about the construction of the project include:  

• Multiple equipment pits will be utilized to house custom ship panel fabrication equipment 
• Nearly 500 Auger Cast Displacement Piles, each 60’ deep 
• 3,918 l.f. of embedded steel beams to meet strict equipment tolerances 
• 16’ deep field assembled roof girders supporting a 225’ clear span required to allow for open bay material handling and various bridge cranes 
• Complex mechanical infrastructure such as welding gas, compressed air, and dust collection ducts all trenched underground to avoid overhead conflicts in the fabricating process

At peak construction, some 200 workers will be on site. The project is expected to be operational in the spring of 2022.

About Gray

Gray is a fully integrated, international service provider deeply rooted in engineering, design, construction, smart manufacturing, and equipment manufacturing services. Consistently ranked among the top industrial contractors in the U.S., we focus on the following markets for domestic and international customers: Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, Automotive, Distribution, Mission Critical, and Commercial.

Founded in 1960, Gray has grown to encompass a complementary family of brands designed to augment and enhance each other’s specialized capabilities without gaps or redundancies. Our robust offering—which includes strategy, operational improvements, construction, extensive engineering, automation & controls, and equipment manufacturing—enables us to create one-of-a-kind solutions at the highest levels of customization, delivering unmatched precision and partnership to some of the world’s most sophisticated organizations.

For more information on Gray, visit gray.com and follow us @Gray.

About Austal USA

Austal USA is an advanced ship manufacturer headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, with operations in San Diego, Seattle, and Singapore. Its headquarters and manufacturing facility are located on its state-of-the-art campus designed uniquely with moving assembly lines for module construction and guided by lean manufacturing principles. Austal USA is positioned to support both commercial and government ship construction as well as services and support worldwide. The company is under contract with the U.S. Navy to build the advanced small surface combatant Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship and the auxiliary ship Expeditionary Fast Transport. With excellence awards in five consecutive years, Austal USA continues to be one of the safest shipyards in America and was ranked by Forbes as the 49th best midsize employer in the U.S.

For more information, visit https://usa.austal.com/.