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The clang of machinery echoes throughout the decks of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78); these aren’t the usual sounds of ship life, however, these are the sounds of a ship executing a Planned Incremental Availability (PIA), or more simply put – a six-month period of modernization, maintenance and repairs.
One challenge faced by ship’s leadership during any maintenance period is how to maintain the ship’s livability for the crew. That is where Lt. Cmdr. Greg Syers, from Omaha, Nebraska, comes in, he is Ford’s habitability officer and his job is to ensure that the ship remains livable during this maintenance availability.
“My job as the habitability officer is to make sure that the work that is being done around the ship minimally impacts the quality of life for the Sailors aboard the ship,” said Syers. “One way we do that is if there is a berthing being affected by a planned outage of ventilation, lighting or potable water, we make berthings temporarily available to those Sailors that are on duty and most importantly, the Sailors that we have living aboard. We owe it to them to keep them informed and to ease the load of being in the shipyard.”
Currently, there are approximately 4,000 jobs planned for Ford’s PIA, but not all of these jobs will directly impact habitability. However, each of the jobs is evaluated for possible impacts by Syers and his habitability team.
"Our main goal for PIA is to leave the shipyard on-time and make preparations for Ford's inaugural deployment next year, and part of those preparations include completing maintenance that will affect the daily lives of our Sailors," said Capt. Jeremy Shamblee, Ford's executive officer. "As Big XO, my main priority is our Sailors. I want to ensure that our Sailors who live and work aboard the ship are informed about the maintenance items being completed and have designated spaces they can use if their assigned spaces are affected by the work being done during PIA."
As with any large-scale maintenance project, there will be an impact to the crew. Currently, the most extensive job impacting habitability is the aft mess decks resurfacing job where PRORECO (PRC), a marine deck-coating made of a resin sealer and color epoxy designed to resist heavy abrasion, impact and other potential movements, is being replaced. There are also a few hundred other PRC jobs that are going to cause passageway closures, some in berthings and staterooms, where Sailors will not be able to inhabit those spaces. As those jobs take place, Sailors will have to modify transit routes through the ship or utilize temporary berthing areas.
In addition to PRC jobs that impact ship transit and space access, the inspection, cleaning and possible repair of tanks, voids, piping and other equidment will inevitably affect habitability.
“Another big job that we have coming down the pipeline is the inspection and cleaning of the ship’s jet propellant five (JP-5) fuel tanks,” said Syers. “The accesses to those tanks are located in berthing areas and it takes about three weeks per tank to complete the job. Those spaces will be uninhabitable, so we have already made sure that Sailors in affected berthings will have alternative sleeping arrangements.”
For large projects that impact thousands of people, communication is paramount. Syers and his habitability team, which includes a representative from every department, meet twice a week to discuss the jobs that are happening that week, and to make a plan for the jobs to deconflict any impacts expected in the coming weeks. From these meetings, Syers and his team draft up a document called “Habitability Happenings,” that is published at the beginning of every week in the ship’s internal weekly newsletter, “The Wolverine Weekly Digest.”
“This is a complete team effort from the habitability team to the departmental reps and construction supervisors at Newport News Shipyard, to SUPSHIP (Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair Newport News) evaluating what we are able to do,” said Syers. “It is an integrated endeavor to ensure that we get this project done on time and with the least habitability impact to the Sailors possible so that we can go operate forward at our scheduled time.”
As Ford begins this maintenance period, her Sailors and their families can be assured that there is an entire team of people ensuring that the ship remains livable and their concerns are heard.
For more news from USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), visit www.dvidshub.net/unit/CVN78.
| Date Taken: | 09.03.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.07.2021 09:13 |
| Story ID: | 404599 |
| Location: | NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | OMAHA, NEBRASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 509 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, This is Ford Class: Maintaining a Habitable Ship During PIA, by CPO William Spears, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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