Huge `bulbous nose' for navy ship taking trip under Lions Gate Bridge
Delta welding company ready to deliver 100-tonne bow, about 4-5 storeys high
A Delta welding company is getting ready to deliver a massive part of a Canadian navy ship that is about four or five storeys high and weighs 100 tonnes.
The massive “bulbous nose” will be barged today from Ideal Welders on Annacis Island, scheduled to arrive at Seaspan shipbuilders in North Vancouver early Thursday.
It is expected to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge around 6 a.m. Thursday.
“It's a pretty big deal because it's the first time a bulbous nose has been built in Western Canada or Canada since the 1990s,” said Josh Taylor, project manager for Ideal Welders.
“We put all the parts together,” he said, building the massive structure by welding together hundreds or thousands of metal pieces, some as small as a person's hand, into six major components.
“It got put together like a big Lego set,” Taylor said. “It's the first time we had a project of this size.”
Ideal completed the assembly under contract with Seaspan Shipyards, B.C.'s major shipbuilder, as part of the federal government's National Shipbuilding Strategy.
The NSS was announced in 2010 “to create jobs and equip the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard with much-needed vessels,” according to the federal government website.
“The National Shipbuilding Strategy is helping restore our shipyards, rebuild our marine industry and create sustainable jobs in Canada while ensuring our sovereignty and protecting our interests at home and abroad,” it said.
The NSS was expected to cost $35 billion over 30 years, but a parliamentary budget watchdog predicted the price to build combat and non-combat vessels will reach almost $70 billion over the next quarter-century.
The NSS is a “very big economy driver on both coasts,” said Taylor.
Ideal boosted its labour force by 10 to 20 per cent by hiring fitters and fabricators for the project, and it expects to keep them on because “we're hopeful this has opened opportunities, for sure,” he said.
About 30 to 40 union workers worked on the project.
The company has about 150 to 175 employees. It's privately owned and Taylor declined to reveal the company's yearly revenues.
The project had its challenges, especially since it was completed during COVID restrictions, which “added a whole layer to the business” because restrictions shifted and the company had to adapt, he said.
Taylor said Ideal is proud to be part of the NSS and said it shows that Canada can compete globally in the shipbuilding industry.
His company hired a photographer and videographer to record the feat of moving the ship part from its bay to the barge on the Fraser River. The trip is taking place at night because that's when the favourable tides are, he said.