By Susan A. Baird
PBN Web Editor
SOMERSET – Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, The Duclos Corp., has been awarded $628,300 in the first round of shipyard grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration.
The money – awarded under the new Assistance to Small Shipyards program, a small-business initiative authorized by Congress in the fiscal 2006 National Defense Authorization Act and funded in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 – will go toward railway assembly and railway and dock extension at the Somerset facility, the DOT said.
Gladding-Hearn is known for its ability to design and build custom or specialized craft, such as pilot, fire, police or tug boats, high-speed ferries and whale-watch catamarans. Its high-speed catamaran designs are developed in conjunction with INCAT Designs of Australia, while its pilot boats are developed with C. Raymond Hunt Assoc. of Boston, developer of the “deep-V” hull, the company’s Web site says.
“Small shipyards are vitally important for the health of the maritime industry and for the economy of the nation,” Sean T. Connaughton, the DOT’s national maritime administrator, said yesterday in announcing the first round of awards.
MARAD’s small shipyards program offers assistance with capital and infrastructure improvements intended to boost the efficiency, cost-effectiveness and quality of domestic ship construction, conversion or repair. The grants cover up to 75 percent of the estimated cost of the improvements; recipients are responsible for the remainder of the cost.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) focuses on strengthening the national water-transportation system, including industry, infrastructure and labor. For more information, visit www.marad.dot.gov.
Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, The Duclos Corp., has been designing and building specialized commercial vessels since 1955, and high-speed catamarans since 1987. For more information, visit www.gladding-hearn.com.
