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fi ce (GAO). Pending resolution of those two protests, the Coast Guard in February ordered that OPC work be stopped temporarily. Under GAO rules, it takes 100 days from the date of a protest until the offi ce provides a resolu- tion. A decision on the matter is expected in June.

Huntington Ingalls is the builder of the Coast Guard’s new high-endurance National Security Cutters, with four completed, a fi fth to be launched this year and work under way on a sixth. Bollinger, meanwhile, is the prime con- tractor for the Guard’s short-range patrol craft, the Fast

Response Cutter.

Bollinger’s USCG Work Record Is Lengthy

Of the three companies awarded OPC contracts in Feb- ruary, Bollinger – with its extensive record in building smaller cutters – has done the most work for the Coast

Guard. Bath builds destroyers for the U.S. Navy and last built Coast Guard vessels in the 1930s. Eastern builds off- shore support vessels and other commercial boats.

In February, Chris Bollinger, president of Bollinger

Shipyards, said the company’s award was a vote of con- fi dence in its craftsmen and engineers, who are building

Coast Guard cutters now. Bollinger’s award indicates the company’s could build for the agency for decades to come, he said. Bollinger has partnered with Gibbs & Cox Mari- time Solutions in Virginia for its OPC design develop- ment, L3 Communications in New York for the OPC’s

C4ISR systems, and Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards

Group--which made the parent design for the fast patrol cutters being built in Lockport now. C4ISR refers to com- mand, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Bollinger expects to employ more than 250 naval ar- chitects, engineers, designers and planners to support its

OPC design under Phase I and its Phase II proposal for detailed design and construction. If Bollinger wins its bid for Phase II construction, thousands of jobs would be cre- ated in South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, the company said in February. With 2,500 employees, Bollinger oper- ates 10 shipyards in South Louisiana and Texas now and will expand to 11 by year’s end. Two of those – Bollinger

Lockport New Construction and Bollinger Marine Fabri- cators – do new construction. The company runs 28 dry- docks, ranging in capacity from 400 tons to 10,500 tons. “Our company has built more than 145 fast patrol boats for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard since 1984,”

Robert Socha, Bollinger’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said. In 2008, the Coast Guard selected the company to design and build its new 153-foot Fast

Response Cutters. “Our Lockport facility has successfully designed, constructed and delivered eight of the FRCs and was recently awarded more, bringing our contracted FRC units to 24, with an option for up to 34 units,” Socha said.

Other government awards to Bollinger include USCG 110-foot Island Class patrol boats in 1986; the U.S. Navy 179-foot Cyclone Class patrol ship in 1977; and USCG 87-foot Marine Protector Class patrol boats in 1993.

Bollinger’s current, commercial construction includes program designs for ABS-classed 300-foot and 270-foot

DP2 platform supply vessels, along with the completed 210-foot and 234-foot DP2 designs for construction sup- porting deepwater oil. “Additional programs include lift boats, dredgers, multi-purpose support vessels, docking tugs, articulated tug and barge units, tank barges and deck barges, as well as rigs and mini supply vessels,” Socha said.

Repair and conversion are big parts of Bollinger’s busi- ness. “New builds need a safe and experienced place to go for their regulatory and day-to-day repairs and con-

SHIPBUILDING

Artist’s conception of the Eastern

Shipbuilding Group’s OPC concept

The Bollinger built Fast Response Cutter. Bollinger has years of experience with the U.S. Coast Guard.

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