General Dynamics Bath Iron Works last week unveiled a $40 million facility aimed at speeding production of Navy destroyers.
The four-story, 60,000 square-foot Pier Support Center is located next to Pier 2, where the Louis H. Wilson Jr. is being completed. BIW’s first Flight III destroyer is named after U.S. Marine Corps General Louis H. Wilson Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient.
Zachau Construction, based in Freeport, was the project manager.
BIW said the facility was designed to house workspace for mechanics involved in waterborne construction, along with workshops, bathrooms, a centralized lunchroom and micro market, an auditorium, lockers and other support areas.
The building is expected to help accelerate the DDG 51 program’s shipbuilding rate, as Pier 2 has become a key site for post-launch construction work.
Details on the cost of the project, funded by General Dynamics and the U.S. Navy, were not immediately available.
“It’s just a great facility for the entire team to use,” BIW President Charles Krugh said at last week’s ribbon-cutting. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of U.S. naval operations, attended the ceremony along with U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine.
“We can’t thank you enough,” Krugh told the lawmakers, “for all you’ve done to help the yard — and continue to do — to make it more modern, more capable and ready to deliver more ships to the Navy.”
Bath Iron Works is ranked fourth among Maine’s largest employers in the 2026 Mainebiz Book of Lists, published in December. Rankings were based on average monthly employment in the first quarter of 2025.
