Gray Receives South Central Construction’s Best of 2009 Award

Gray Construction received the South Central Construction Best of 2009 in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi & Tennessee award of excellence for the manufacturing facility construction of Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. The award was presented to Gray on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at a luncheon hosted by South Central Construction in Memphis, Tenn.

South Central Construction, a McGraw-Hill Publication, is a regional publication covering Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. This monthly magazine provides regional, in-depth and comprehensive coverage on heavy engineering, highway, building and industrial construction news across the South Central United States.

The Gray design-build team was responsible for architecture, construction management and structural engineering for Austal’s new 368,000 s.f. manufacturing facility, which will be capable of building six large aluminum vessels per year, such as the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV). Special features of this massive project include 18 overhead cranes, one at 250 tons. Challenges included the dredge-filled site that was covered by Mobile Bay just 40 years ago, building to hurricane construction codes and completing the job under a tight time frame.

Austal, based in Australia, is a leading global ship manufacturer. Teamed with General Dynamics, Austal is one of two consortiums chosen by the U.S. Navy to design and build the Littoral Combat Ship–a new generation high speed warship deployed for a variety of assignments including mine countermeasures and anti-submarine and anti-surface attack craft warfare.

This project marks Gray’s first shipbuilding facility and first Australian customer. If you have manufacturing plant construction needs or are interested in additional Austal USA project information, please contact Chris Allen, Executive Vice President at callen@gray.com.