Ship-Repair Yard To Dismantle, Recycle Navy Vessels

The award came just a week before work on dismantling the Biddle, a Navy cruiser, will be finished. Many of the yard's 175 workers had feared layoffs soon after Christmas.

"Now we'll be able to keep all the workers busy after the holidays," said John Strem, the yard's superintendent.

The new government contract allows the yard to hold on to the workforce it trained for the first three ships it recycled, Strem said.

The ships to be dismantled are the McDonnell, a frigate, and the Claude V. Ricketts, a destroyer. The contract was awarded through competitive bidding. Strem said dismantling the two vessels would bring about $4 million to the yard. Citing competitive reasons, he declined to release the precise amount.

Metro Machine, an employee-owned ship-repair firm based in Norfolk, Va., has leased a pair of dry docks next to the gleaming new Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard.

With hundreds of decommissioned Navy warships rusting in harbors on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, Metro sees ship recycling as a potentially lucrative business.

The federal government considered using overseas yards to scrap warships. But a controversy erupted over the inability of the foreign facilities to safely cope with hazardous materials that abound on old ships.

Under a pilot project sponsored by the Navy, Metro has developed procedures for dismantling ships, disposing of toxic waste, and selling scrap material to cover part of the cost.

"We started from zero," Strem said. "Our employees have suggested things, and we've gotten smarter as we've done the work."

Since its recycling program started, the yard has received contracts for three ships, including the Biddle and the Yarnell, which are both still being dismantled.

Earlier this week Metro received the Pennsylvania "Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence" for its ship-recycling program.

Meanwhile, the yard's ship-repair business continues. Its next project, the Arctic, will arrive Jan. 15. The 754-foot fast combat supply ship - which delivers ammunition, fuel, food and supplies to aircraft carriers at sea - will be here two months for a major repair of the reduction gear bearings in the ship's propulsion system. Philadelphia Inquirer