Colonna’s Shipyard Building 7 Phase 4 Facility Expansion

Norfolk based Colonna’s Shipyard is looking far into the future with big expansion plans, and SBBCC is proud to partner in Colonna’s commitment to long term growth and excited about our involvement with the Building 7 Phase 4 facility expansion project.

Building 7 Phase 4 Expansion Project – Building 7, which includes Steel America’s Fabrication and Machine Shop, is located in the Main Yard of the shipyard. The building consists of a pre-engineered metal building with a pile supported concrete floor slab measuring approximately 150’ x 400’. Running the length of the building is a partition wall which serves to separate the Machine Shop from the Fabrication Shop. The building was constructed in three (3) phases starting with Phase 1 in 1998, Phase 2 in 2004, and Phase 3 in 2012. The building is supplied with overhead cranes ranging from 20-ton to 50-ton capacity and 2-ton column mounted jib cranes. Service piping includes oxygen, propylene, compressed air, and argon/CO2 mix. Modular offices and bathrooms are located between the shops.

Phase 4 consists of extending the existing building approximately 200-feet to the south thereby adding approximately 30,000 square feet to the overall building. Existing structures and utilities in way of the expansion will be demolished and relocated. A 30’ x 30’ metal building and supporting foundation with services that houses a steel beam cutting machine is being relocated.

This transformational project is aimed at providing communities we live and work in with structures that have an impact far beyond their walls. We are proud to have partnered with a client that is creating meaningful opportunity and enduring change.

Project Updates

“We have a very long history here, but we also have a long term capital investment vision,” said CEO Tom Godfrey.

Founded in and family owned since 1875, Colonna’s is the oldest continuous family owned and operated private shipyard in the United States. A full service ship repair facility located on the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, Virginia, occupying over 100 acres of land with water access, operating four floating drydocking facilities, three floating dry docks, one marine railway, a travel lift facility, and several piers and ship berthing spaces that can accommodate vessels drafting up to 28 feet.

Steel America, a division of Colonna’s Shipyard is a custom steel fabrication shop and large scale machining service provider with complex mechanical and electrical capabilities. It has a unique ability to fabricate heavy, high cube structures, up to 1,000 metric tons in modular form, for delivery by barge directly from the shop to waterborne project locations. Steel America’s machine shop specializes in tight-tolerance and specialty machining for the marine, power, hydro, and military markets. With 100-ton lift capacity, and one of the largest CNC lathes in production, Steel America has the capability to turn shafts up to 95’ in length, 144” swing, and up to 200 tons between centers.

Although over 140 years old, Colonna’s Shipyard continues to maintain its commitment to modernization, making the capital investments necessary for improvements in efficiency and productivity. Today, Colonna’s is a diverse industrial company with extensive capabilities in commercial and government ship repair, marine and industrial machining and steel fabrication.