Philly Shipyard Sued Over Construction Delays on Rock Installation Vessel
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company filed suit in the U.S. Eastern District against Philly Shipyard citing construction delays and a disagreement over the construction plan for the company’s rock installation vessel. The company is asking the court to grant a restraining order and preliminary injunction saying it is suffering harm due to the repeated delays in the delivery date for the vessel.
The court filing cites that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock stipulated since it began the selection process for a shipyard to build the vessel that time was of the essence. They report Philly Shipyard during the proposal process presented an unacceptable timeline in effect removing itself from the bidding. However, Philly Shipyard later presented a revised construction schedule and in November 2021 was awarded the contract which called for a delivery date of November 15, 2024.
Great Lakes ordered a 461-foot-long fallpipe vessel for subsea rock installation valued at $197 million as part of its efforts to expand to support the offshore wind installation sector. The company also took an option for a second vessel. The subsea rock installation vessel is designed to carry up to 20,000 MT of rock, transporting and depositing the rocks to the ocean floor. It will lay a foundation for the monopiles which serve as the prevailing support structure for offshore wind turbines.
Work started with fanfare when President Joe Biden visited the shipyard to mark the first steel cut in July 2023. Assembly of the vessel named Arcadia began in May 2024. Great Lakes acknowledges in its filing that it accepted two charge orders which set a new contract delivery date of February 14, 2025.
The company now contends it is filing that Philly Shipyard is failing to meet its obligations and has proposed various new timelines with delays of as much as 593 days. They assert that between August and October 2024, Philly has repeatedly changed the timeline first proposing October 30, 2025, and more recently an “estimated delivery date of September 30, 2026.”
“Great Lakes’s patience has reached its end, because it recently became apparent that Philly’s pattern of false promises, failure to take seriously its contractual commitments, and breaches of the VCA (vessel construction agreement) threatened to irreparably harm Great Lakes,” the company writes in its court filing.
They allege that Philly Shipyard's “delays are exacerbated by its prioritization of other projects at the shipyard at the expense of making progress on the vessel.” They contend the shipyard is understaffed, laid-off individuals, and is sharing resources between the rock vessel construction and other projects in the yard.
They are asking the court to stop a plan to float the incomplete vessel so that one of the MARAD vessels under construction at the yard behind the Arcadia can be moved from the assembly dry dock to the outfitting berth. Great Lakes said it has rejected this plan as the vessel is not ready for floating and to prepare it would further delay construction. They allege the yard would also begin construction on another vessel in the dry dock further delaying their vessel.
The proposed restraining order would stop the plan to move the incomplete rock vessel from the dock until it is ready for outfitting, They are also asking the court to order the yard to stop diverting shared resources to other projects, and for the shipyard to “develop and maintain a fully resource-loaded and logic-linked schedule,” consistent with the construction contract.
Great Lakes wants the court to also order Philly Shipyard to take actions to recover the project schedule including placing all purchase orders within 60 days. They want certain materials shipped by air to also help recover the construction schedule.
Philly Shipyard issued a brief statement to the stock exchange acknowledging that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock “has filed a complaint and motion against PSI seeking injunctive relief with respect to certain actions related to the project execution plan for the construction” of the rock vessel. They note the yard “continues production activities” for the vessel and is also working on the three MARAD training ships and has started work on the first container vessel ordered by Matson.
District Judge Mary Kay Costello entered an order yesterday setting December 4 for a response by Philly Shipyard to Great Lakes’ motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. The court has scheduled a hearing for December 6 to consider the complaint and request for an injunction.