Page 32: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2023)

SHIP REPAIR

HEGER DRY DOCK

GETS TO WORK ON

AFDM FOR U.S. NAVY

Born in 1998 and celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023, Heger Dry

Dock holds a unique position as one of the few engineering ? rms in the world dedicated to the design and lifecycle engineering of drydocks, primarily ? oating dry docks. Premal Shah, P.E., President and Principal Engineer, discussed some of the company’s recent contract wins with Maritime Reporter & Engineering News.

By Greg Trauthwein pecializing in the design and lifecycle mainte- built outside the country. “There is simply not enough capac- nance of ? oating dry docks, Heger Dry Docks was ity in the U.S. shipyards to build something large [like a dry- founded 25 years ago, and still run today by one dock],” said Shah. “Most of the larger shipyards in the U.S. are of its co-founders, Bob Heger. “We are experts in busy building Navy ships, so they don’t want to take time away

S? oating dry dock designs,” said Shah. “We’re a from their workforce to build a one-off dry dock. So most of our design and engineering company and we deal with dry docks; large designs get built elsewhere outside of the U.S.” about 90% of our work deals with ? oating dry docks.” While the capability to build the drydocks lies mostly out-

While all of its business is in the U.S., it has experience inter- side of the U.S., Shah estimates there is a high demand for the nationally, designing drydocks for customer that have had them units in the U.S., a “shortage of dry docks.” A strong driver re- 32 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2023

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