Coast Guard Awards Largest-Ever Construction Contract for Cape May Revamp

Recruits at Cape May, with aging barracks in the background (USCG)

The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $400 million contract to Whiting Turner Contracting Co. for a comprehensive upgrade to the training facilities at Cape May, New Jersey, the service's sole accession center for newly-enlisted coastguardsmen. It is the largest contract that the service has ever signed for a shoreside project, and will provide a much-needed upgrade for Coast Guard recruiting and training.

The Coast Guard suffered from a period of low recruitment and retention in the early years of the decade, leaving it shortstaffed by about 2,500 enlisted personnel as of mid-2025. While that trend has been reversed, the service wants to have the capacity to train another 2,500 recruits per year (for a total of 8,000). That means more barracks are required, and that is a significant part of the work scope. Other major items include demolition of two existing barracks halls; a new training facility for seamanship courses and drills; a new galley and a new fire station; and the construction of a new VIP stand and grandstands for special occasions.

“This investment marks a historic milestone in modernizing our facilities and ensuring we are fully prepared to develop the next generation of Coast Guardsmen while maintaining the highest standards,” said Capt. Amanda Lee, the commanding officer at Cape May. “By improving infrastructure and quality of life, we are not only strengthening our workforce but also enhancing our readiness and ability to carry out critical missions that protect the nation’s maritime interests.”

The service says that all of these projects were previously deferred due to budget constraints and will now be done as a package; planning for a thorough overhaul has been underway for years. The work will be phased so as not to disrupt the training center's daily operations.

Funding for the project was bundled into the massive Coast Guard appropriations in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025. The Act provided $4.4 billion for Coast Guard shoreside infrastructure recapitalization, and the service has been moving fast to allocate those funds into signed contracts and get its most-needed repair and recapitalization work done. Under the bill's restrictions, all funds must be used by September 2029, at which point the appropriation expires.

Separately, the Coast Guard is also setting up a new Special Missions Command to oversee its tactical units, to be co-located at the C5I Service Center in Kearneysville, West Virginia. The facility is 75 miles outside of Washington, D.C. and about 10 miles from the credential-processing National Maritime Center in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia.