NEW SUPPORT TOWERS ARE WELCOME ADDITION TO NNSY WATERFRONT BY ANNA TAYLOR • PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST PHOTOS BY SHAYNE HENSLEY • NNSY PHOTOGRAPHER
Shipyard employees from numerous departments came together to complete four new support towers, which will first be used on the USS Rhode Island (SSBN 740) project.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard is the proud owner of four new multi-purpose support towers thanks to the combined efforts of the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department (Code 2300), the Structural Group (Code 920), and the Lifting and Handling Department (Code 700). The support towers, which act as elevated platforms for project support materials, were completed in March. For the Reactor Engineering Division (Code 2310), the plan began almost fourteen years ago when the conceptual design was created by Nuclear Engineer Brian Popp. One tower was fabricated in 2002 for a specific need with the expectation that additional towers would be fabricated later to replace NNSY’s existing, aging support towers. However, the project languished for several years due to increased workload and higher-priority work. Nuclear Engineer Brandon Waltemyer picked it back up when he arrived at the shipyard in 2012, but the project was again delayed until June 2014. The drawings took him nearly two years to complete because much of the work was done using two-dimensional AutoCAD (computer-aided design) in his spare time. Frustrations with the process encouraged Waltemyer to learn a quicker and more efficient method, which led him to three-dimensional AutoCAD. Three14 • SERVICE TO THE FLEET • APRIL 2016
dimensional AutoCAD is now widely implemented at the shipyard, and these types of drawings can be finished in a matter of months. Most of Code 920’s Shop 26 welders were supporting highpriority projects on the waterfront, which meant the support towers weren’t going to get the resources they needed. After some skillful shuffling of manpower, Shop 11 and Shop 26 were able to provide a dedicated team to Waltemyer, and they worked 32 days on back-toback 12-hour shifts constructing the towers. Many of the welders were new hires from private shipyards and were not yet qualified to work on ships or submarines. They were, however, qualified to do aluminum welding, a difficult type of welding rarely used at NNSY. “There are welders here in the shipyard who have spent their whole lives welding and never welded aluminum,” said Waltemyer. “These very young welders from outside the yard had the experience and they came in and supported us. Their knowledge was what we needed, when we needed it.” With momentum finally in their favor, the team committed to a deadline and achieved their goal. “They didn’t just do it, they did exceptional work,” Waltemyer said of the multiple trades involved in the staging, rigging, and