Coast Guard finishes a Charleston pier and lines up $440 million more

The Coast Guard’s newest pier in Charleston is finished. The bigger construction program behind it is just getting started.

On Oct. 5, the Coast Guard said it had completed a $132.5 million rebuild of Pier November at Base Charleston, 60 days ahead of schedule. The new pier is 1,190 feet long and 80 feet wide and can hold up to five major cutters, according to the service.

“Pier November will be home to new major Coast Guard cutters currently being constructed that will strengthen the Coast Guard’s ability to secure America’s borders and maritime approaches far at sea,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said in the announcement. “Base Charleston is critical to our operations and will be home to one of the largest concentrations of Coast Guard personnel, assets, and capabilities.”

Next come three design-build contracts awarded this year that together total more than $440 million, according to the Coast Guard. Two out-of-state contractors hold them: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. of Greenbelt, Maryland, and Brasfield & Gorrie LLC of Birmingham, Alabama.

Three contracts, two builders

The Coast Guard announced the first two awards, worth $212 million combined, on May 11.

Whiting-Turner won a $116.7 million fixed-price contract to demolish Pier Mike and replace it with a pier designed to homeport four Offshore Patrol Cutters and one visiting cutter. Each berth will also be able to moor the larger National Security Cutters, the Coast Guard said. Completion is expected in 2030.

Whiting-Turner also tore down and rebuilt Pier November nearby. In May, the Coast Guard said that project was on time and on budget.

Brasfield & Gorrie won a $95.5 million contract to design and build a 30,000-square-foot combined medical and dental facility, a new entry control point and visitor’s center, and supporting utilities. Completion is expected by July 2029.

On June 16, Brasfield & Gorrie landed a second, larger job: a $230 million contract the Coast Guard announced July 10. It covers a 90,000-square-foot engineering complex with space for engineering units, electronics support, industrial production, boat storage, shipping and receiving, and hazardous materials storage. It also includes a 120,000-square-foot multifunctional building with 75 rooms of unaccompanied personnel housing, a galley that can serve 650 people, a fitness center and an exchange, plus a parking structure for people working on ships homeported at the base. Completion is expected in 2030.

That puts $325.5 million of the work with Brasfield & Gorrie. The company lists 13 offices on its website. Its only South Carolina office is in Greenville.

“The strategic expansion of Base Charleston is vital to our maritime operations and national security,” Vice Adm. Jo-Ann F. Burdian, commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area, said in the July announcement. She said the spending supports homeporting the service’s newest cutters and gives service members modern infrastructure, health care and support facilities.

How the money moves

All three contracts went through the National Multiple Award Construction Contract III, a Department of Homeland Security purchasing vehicle for construction. The Coast Guard’s Facilities Design and Construction Center, based in Norfolk, Virginia, handled the Pier Mike contract and the June award and managed the Pier November job, according to the service.

The money comes in part from the nearly $25 billion Congress gave the Coast Guard in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the service calls the largest capital investment in its history. In its Oct. 5 announcement, the Coast Guard said it had ordered about $19 billion in assets, capabilities and infrastructure with that money so far.

Pier November had an older funding source. The rebuild was initially paid for by the fiscal 2019 hurricane supplemental spending bill, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act covered the removal of earlier pier repairs that crews found during construction, the Coast Guard said. The job also included repairs to collapsed bulkheads, dredging and shoreside utility work.

What comes after

The Coast Guard’s October announcement still listed the Pier Mike rebuild and the engineering, multifunctional and medical buildings as additional work at the base.

The service has signaled there is more to come. “Future phases of the Base Charleston expansion will deliver even greater mission capability and support for Coast Guard personnel in the region,” it said in July. That release did not say what those phases include or what they would cost.

Local contractors were scheduled to hear from the base this month. Capt. Matthew Kempe, commanding officer of Coast Guard Base Charleston, was on the program for the Charleston Defense Contractors Association’s Oct. 14 industry symposium at Trident Technical College, according to the association’s agenda.

If the schedules hold, the base will have two rebuilt piers, a medical and dental clinic, an engineering complex and new unaccompanied housing by the end of 2030.