PANAMA CITY — Eastern Shipbuilding Group is moving forward with designs to land a multibillion-dollar contract with the U.S. Coast Guard after a bid protest halted the project for nearly four months.
Eastern, which has two shipyards in Bay County, is one of three companies vying for the $10.5 billion contract to build 25 next-generation offshore patrol cutters, and one of eight shipyards that originally submitted proposals for the project.
After the field was narrowed, the three $22 million fixed-price contracts awarded for preliminary and contract design were protested by two other shipyards that did not make the cut.
The Coast Guard announced Wednesday the federal Government Accountability Office upheld the agency’s contract award decision.
Eastern Shipbuilding President and CEO Brian D’Isernia said the announcement was good news for the company, which will compete against Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Bath Iron Works in Maine to win the final contract.
“It’s also good news for the community,” D’Isernia said. “This is potentially a huge contract. That’s quite a few jobs … stable, long-term jobs here in the community.”
Following the contract announcement in February, D’Iserniasaid if Eastern were to win the 20-year contract, it would add between 750 and 800 employees to the company’s team of 1,500.
In the next phase of the project, the three finalists must complete a detailed ship design and submit a final price to the Coast Guard in the next 18 months.
The finalists were chosen based on a conceptual design and proposal submitted to the Coast Guard, which represented more than three years of work.