Coast Guard Awards Contract to Begin Overhaul at Base Seattle
The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a contract to start modernization works to prepare for homeporting its future Polar Security Cutters in Seattle. Whiting-Turner Contracting won an award worth about $140 million for the first phase of the project, to include construction of two large cutter berths and dredging of a slip to the depth required for the PSC hulls.
The first phase (1A) will widen the slip between two berths, add upgraded utility installations, remove an existing building, and install waterfront stabilization structures. It will also see the renovation of Station Seattle's existing boathouse and small boat docks.
After this phase and the next two are completed, Base Seattle will have four large cutter berths, enough to support a range of oceangoing vessels. In planning, the Coast Guard said that its preferred alternative is to acquire part of Terminal 46, just to the north of the base, and upgrade 1,000-plus feet of existing commercial wharfage to provide extra space for cutters.
Seattle has been the home port for the service's medium and heavy icebreakers for years, and it benefits from the area's well-developed industrial base and the presence of a major shipyard nearby. It will continue to be the service's primary home port for icebreakers, with an exception for USCGC Storis, which will have a base of her own in Juneau.
Coast Guard Base Seattle evolved organically as the service's needs grew in the region. After decades of berthing its cutters wherever there was space available along the commercial waterfront, the service acquired Piers 36 and 37 from the Army Corps of Engineers in 1966. That facility has been headquarters for Sector Puget Sound and Base Seattle ever since, and its infrastructure is aging.
Base improvements have historically taken a back seat for the cash-strapped Coast Guard, which has long struggled to find funding to keep its shoreside infrastructure in working shape. After years of budget sequestration and deferred maintenance, the USCG received a major boost in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provided a much-needed $4.4 billion for reconstructing shoreside facilities. USCG stations across the country can share a combined $2.8 billion appropriation for construction; Alaska is getting a congressionally line-itemed $300 million facility for USCGC Storis; the Coast Guard Yard is getting a new drydock for $500 million; and the service's enlisted bootcamp at Cape May is getting a $425 million revamp.
Shortly after announcing the Base Seattle contract award, the Coast Guard announced its first ever One Big Beautiful Bill expenditure, a smaller $15 million contract extension awarded to Whiting-Turner for pier renovation at Base Charleston in South Carolina.