Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 9 A P R I L 2 0 , 2 0 2 0 Own your retirement with a healthy smile protected by high-quality dental insurance at an affordable price. DeltaDentalCoversMe.com YOUR TEETH NEVER RETIRE. PROTECT THEM WITH SMILE POWER! NEDD_1_2 PAGE_ Senior V3.indd 1 8/19/19 8:06 AM B R I E F Maine Maritime Academy in line for $300M training vessel B y W i l l i a m H a l l Castine — Construction of a $300 million training vessel for Maine Maritime Academy was contracted out to a Philadelphia shipyard. Philly Shipyard Inc. won the multiyear contract to build two training vessels for two maritime schools at a price of $630 million, with options to build three more for a total of $1.5 billion, according to a news release. The yard will work under a project manager for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration — TOTE Services LLC of Jacksonville, Fla., whose cargo ship, the El Faro, sank in a 2015 hurricane, killing five academy graduates and all 28 other crew members. Besides operating and crewing ships like the El Faro — owned since 1991 by sister company TOTE Maritime — TOTE Services also manages the building and fitting-out of new ships. In 2019, after a competitive bid process, the Maritime Administration (known as MARAD) awarded TOTE Services a $39.2 million contract to manage construction of the five training ships. The federal government will own the 525-foot National Security Multi-Mission Vessels, and has said it may use them to provide humanitarian assistance or disaster relief. Designed to provide real-world education for up to 600 maritime cadets, each ship comes with a fully equipped hospital and a helicopter landing pad, and in a pinch can berth up to 1,000 people. The ships will spend much of their time as training craft for MMA, in Castine, and for maritime schools in California, Massachusetts, New York and Texas. In those ports, the NSMVs will replace vessels that are aging and growing obsolete. The State University of New York Maritime College's TS Empire State VI, 57 years old, will be replaced first, with work beginning early next year and completion due in 2023. TOTE will then lead construction of ships for Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Maine Maritime, whose cur- rent ship, TS State of Maine, launched in 1990 and was retrofitted for training in 1997. A specific timeframe for the State of Maine replace- ment is not yet determined. Congress has budgeted $300 million for that ship, and President Donald Trump OK'd the allocation in December despite initially seek- ing a smaller amount. MMA President William J. Brennan, who also chairs the Consortium of State Maritime Academies, praised the selection of the shipyard. "The Consortium of State Maritime Academies applauds yesterday's announcement that the Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia has been selected to build the nation's new National Security Multi-mission Vessel (NSMV) fleet," Brennan said in a written statement. "The training of merchant mariners is essential to the strength of the U.S. economy and to our national security." Maine Maritime officials have not publicly com- mented on the selection of TOTE to manage the ves- sels' construction, and when contacted by Mainebiz refused to say anything about the choice. The acad- emy's alumni association also declined. In a news release, TOTE said, "We are confident in our ability to work with Philly Shipyard to deliver on the NSMV and are excited to again work with MARAD on this important initiative." TOTE has managed a half dozen military transport ships for MARAD and had also planned to work with Philly Shipyard on a container ship project before canceling it in 2018. R E N D E R I N G / C O U R T E S Y U. S. D E PA R T M E N T O F T R A N S P O R TAT I O N The $300 million The $300 million Maine Maritime Academy Maine Maritime Academy training vessel training vessel

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