Louisiana shipyard tapped for new US Navy berthing barge

Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana has been awarded a contract to build the US Navy’s seventh Auxiliary Personnel Lighter–Small (APL 73) class berthing and messing barge. The contract award is for a fixed-price option for the detail design and construction of the vessel.

Bollinger delivered the berthing barges APL 70 and APL 71 to the US Navy in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and is currently building APL 72.

The APLs are used by the navy to house crewmembers when ships are in port for availabilities and Inter-Deployment Training Cycles. Bollinger tailors the barge’s mobility requirement into the design, ensuring they can be towed to new bases or shipyards to support changing fleet requirements. Such mobility offers additional capabilities to serve humanitarian missions and other temporary assignments.

Each APL is 269 feet (82 metres) long, 69 feet (21 metres) wide, and has a draught of seven feet (2.1 metres). Each vessel is equipped with offices, classrooms, washrooms, laundry facilities, medical treatment areas, a barber shop, and a fitness center.

With mess seating for 224 enlisted personnel and 28 officers, each meal is served via five 20-minute shifts to allow food service for 1,130 personnel (three meals per day). The vessels are also fitted with mixed-gender berthing spaces for 74 officers and 537 enlisted personnel, for a total of 611 people.