The Ten-Year Strategy of the U.S. Coast Guard Yard: The Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Yard led the
effort to develop a 10-year strategic plan that was signed on January 16, 2019. The plan focuses on three main strategies
to combat the continuing decline of the U.S. public shipyard industry, which has shrunk from 13 to five yards over the
past 30 years:
- Workforce Management: The Yard must continue to maintain its competitive advantage through evolving
recruiting, training, and development programs to provide a stable, highly skilled engineering and waterfront workforce
into the future. Part of this workforce strategy also calls for improved IT systems to better plan and manage workflows
and increased mobility of its workforce to be able to deploy to areas around the globe where the Coast Guard is being
called to duty.
- Targeted Investment: The Yard's infrastructure, like many of its Naval Shipyard counterparts, is aging
and still aligned toward past activities, such as ship construction. In addition to modernizing and repairing critical
utilities, building structures, and base support equipment and facilities, the Yard must also undertake capital improvements
to better support the modern and future fleets of the Coast Guard and its other clients. It also must anticipate and
prepare for resiliency issues such as rising sea level and the increasing ferocity of storms.
- Innovation and Adaptation: The Yard needs to benchmark its capabilities, technologies, and workforce
skill sets against U.S. and international shipyards. To keep pace with the other shipyards, the Coast Guard needs to
investigate augmented robotics, new coating system technologies, networked industrial equipment, greater application
of hand-held electronic devices, and additive manufacturing. From a financial and cost-affordability standpoint, the
Yard needs to advocate for its working capital funding to be allowed to engage in innovative lease agreements, public-private
and public-public partnerships and participate in
other transaction authorities (OTAs) as is allowed for Operation and Maintenance O&M funded installations.
Taking advantage of these additional authorities established in U.S. Code would allow the Yard to generate revenue to
recapitalize existing facilities and reduce the costs of its services to its clients. Through recapitalization, new
technologies, use of alternative authorities for funding, and reduced costs of operations, the Yard could then attract
new clients and ensure it continues to be the maintenance facility of choice for existing clients.
In looking towards future growth and mission sustainment, the Strategic Plan also examines the current state of the shipyard
industry, the future outlook, and identifies challenges that may deter growth over the next decade. The strategies of
the plan work to address these challenges.
2019-2029 Yard Facilities Master Plan: This update to the 2007 Coast Guard Yard Land Use Plan is aligned to the
Ten-Year Strategy. The master plan establishes near-term and long-term strategies for preserving current infrastructure
and planning, developing, and constructing updated/new infrastructure. The near-term portion of the plan is focused on
stopping the current cycle of operations and maintenance and other capital funding being spent on failing infrastructure
which interrupts on-going work, reducing the amount of funds coming into the Yard because it cannot invoice its clients
for work not performed. The long-term focus is to ensure the Yard is capable of providing the maintenance, upgrading,
service-life extension, and other necessary industrial and infrastructure assets to be able to support a future shift
to larger Coast Guard ships. For example, the new Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC) will be 360 feet long, replacing both
the 270-foot and 210-foot cutters, requiring larger dry-docks, bigger cranes, more rigging, and increased capability
to support the updated IT and electronics packages on this new fleet.
Cleanup Activities of Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard: The Coast Guard worked with the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and state partners to complete the cleanup of the Yard, which was designated as a Superfund site in 2002. The cleanup,
which took almost a dozen years, removed 50,000 tons of contaminated soil that were the result of common industrial practices
and hazardous waste disposal in the early days of the Yard. Completed in 2013, cleanup efforts spurred the creation of
more green space at the Yard and the implementation of low impact stormwater design practices to control runoff, a storm
water project that considered the needs of the surrounding community. Additionally, the site was cleaned up to residential
standards rather than industrial standards to ensure that the property could be used safely in the event that one day
it is no longer a Coast Guard site.
Coordination continues as the EPA completes five-year reviews required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act (CERCLA) to determine whether the implemented remedies are protective of human health and the environment.
The most
recent review
of the site took place in 2019.
