Navy moves on with plans for $30 billion Puget Sound Naval Shipyard project

The U.S. Navy has advanced planning for a potential $30 billion “mega-construction project” at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard that includes a new, larger dry dock capable of servicing the fleet’s aircraft carriers.

The Navy issued a Sources Sought Notice on July 1 on SAM.gov, the government contracting website.

The notice was a preliminary step to gauge contractor interest in a possible Multiple Award Construction Contract that could include as many as five major portions of the overall project, with some costing up to $6 billion.

The Navy issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement in July 2025 and could release the final version later this year, with construction beginning in spring 2028.

The new dry dock at Puget Sound would be able to service Gerald R. Ford-class and Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the largest ships in the fleet. It would also be used for work on submarines and other surface vessels.

The full project also includes demolishing, replacing or building piers, wharves, cranes, moorings and other facilities at the Navy’s only public shipyard on the West Coast.

The Navy is also proposing dredging in Sinclair Inlet in front of the shipyard to create adequate water depth to accommodate the construction.

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard project is one of the central efforts of the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program to modernize the four public shipyards that still have some infrastructure dating to World War II and earlier. The Puget Sound shipyard opened in 1891 and was used to repair some of the battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and return them to combat. Today, it’s responsible for deactivating nuclear submarine reactors, recycling the hulls and shipping the reactors to a repository in eastern Washington.

The United States Navy’s four public naval shipyards are Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va.; Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine; Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Hawaii; and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Bremerton on Naval Base Kitsap in Washington.