Like ripples spreading from a single drop of water, new Pearl Harbor projects are radiating from Dry Dock 5, the highest-value single project in U.S. Navy history.

Dry Dock 5 had a maximum estimated contract value of $3.4 billion when it was awarded in 2023, says Jason Chung, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii vice president of military affairs. “The total investment is expected to reach approximately $4.2 billion once completed.”

In tandem with the dock’s current construction, the Navy is advancing the complete modernization of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (PHNS) and 148 acres of Harbor waterfront.

The Navy’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Investment

Currently, most PHNS facilities are too old and small to efficiently service newer, larger Navy vessels.

“Given the shipyard’s critical location in the heart of the Indo-Pacific, it requires urgent, multi-billion-dollar updates to replace this aging infrastructure so it can support larger Virginia-class attack submarines and increasingly sophisticated surface vessels,” says Hawai‘i U.S. Rep. Ed Case.

Case reports that he, the rest of Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegation and other stakeholders are leading sustained efforts to modernize the nation’s four public shipyards through the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP), established by the Navy in 2018.

Dry Dock 5, a SIOP project, launches SIOP’s Area Development Plan for PHNS and Pearl Harbor.

At 650 feet long and 100 feet wide, Dry Dock 5 will be big enough to hold Virginia-class submarines and large surface vessels when complete.

But to service them efficiently, PHNS and Pearl Harbor infrastructure must be state-of-the-art.

SIOP calls for the multi-decade modernization of PHNS and Pearl Harbor and is expected to bring “approximately $16 billion to $21 billion in federal infrastructure investment to Hawai‘i over the next 20 to 30 years,” Chung says.

100+ Major Projects

The recently published SIOP Area Development Plan – Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard – Preferred Course of Action, August 2025, states 39 SIOP projects are currently active at PHNS and Pearl Harbor, including Dry Dock 5.

The Plan also states 79 new SIOP projects have been proposed.

In all, says the Plan, the Navy expects to build 118 major SIOP projects at PHNS and Pearl Harbor.

Supporting SIOP projects will likely include many renovations, upgrades and repairs to Pearl Harbor berths, wharves, buildings, facilities, shops, roofs, yards, energy systems, electrical systems, IT systems, water systems, fire/HVAC systems, environmental compliance systems, sewers and caissons.

“For Hawai‘i’s construction and engineering sectors, this represents long-term stability and sustained demand for skilled labor at an unprecedented scale,” Chung says. “Local companies are participating in complex marine construction, engineering and industrial infrastructure projects that expand the state’s technical expertise and capacity to execute highly specialized work.”

On the Docket

In the nation’s capitol, “Dry Dock 5 is by far our top priority,” Case says.

Case adds that Hawai‘i’s Congressional delegation is also focused on optimizing PHNS and Pearl Harbor industrial processes, constructing new industrial buildings, upgrading piers and shoreside service facilities, updating water and electrical utilities and aging equipment.

“With the exception of Dry Dock 5, which is receiving hundreds of millions of dollars of annual funding, much of this effort is in various planning stages to sequence into construction funding in the next decade-plus,” he says.

“SIOP is authorization only,” he clarifies. “The actual dollars still have to be appropriated each year through the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

“We work every year to assure needed projects are submitted for any new authorization needed through the [annual] National Defense Authorization Act and otherwise, and in my Appropriations Committee to fund ongoing and new projects.”

Funding also supports other current projects such as child development centers at Schofield Barracks and Aliamanu Military Reservation by Nan Inc.; a Secure Integration Support Laboratory for the U.S. Air Force and taxi lane repairs at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, both by Hensel Phelps; barracks renovations at Wheeler Army Airfield and Schofield Barracks by Nordic PCL Construction Inc; and Naval Base Guam wharf repairs by Healy Tibbitts Builders Inc.  — all vital to national defense and Hawai‘i.

A Strong Sector Builds
Self-Reliance

“In the big picture,” Case says, “national defense is central to Hawai‘i, for two reasons.

“First, we are and will continue to be one of the most vital, strategically critical locations and assemblages of installations and activities in the world, and so are critical to and benefit from a strong national defense.

“Second, our defense presence, the second most important pillar of our economy at somewhere around 17% and growing, is critical to our local business community and to good jobs and incomes throughout our state.

“So as we support defense in Hawai‘i, we support both our country and ourselves.”