Contract awarded for design of new Australian research vessel

RALion was recently awarded a contract to design an 89 meter, ice-strengthened research vessel for the Australian government.

The vessel will be operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO),  Australia’s national science agency.

RALion is a joint venture between Robert Allan Ltd.,Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Alion Science and Technology Corporation, McLean, Va., and Alion Science and Technology (Canada) Corporation, Kanata, Ontario, Canada.

The design contract was awarded by Singapore’s Sembawang Shipyard Pte. Ltd. Sembawang Shipyard was awarded a S$123 million contract last month for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the vessel by Teekay Holding Australia Pty. Ltd. as project managers.

The research vessel, which will be named the R/V Investigator, is being built as a replacement for the R/V Southern Surveyor.  The 66.1m, 1594-gt Southern Surveyor, shown in the thumbnail and image below, was built in 1972.

The new vessel will be one of the largest and most capable oceanographic research vessels in the world, capable of continuous and extended operations throughout the Great Southern Ocean, and operating in the full range of operating environments encountered. It will be based in Hobart, Tasmania and will operate from the tropical north to the Antarctic ice-edge and across the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans.

Upon completion and delivery in the second quarter of 2013, the vessel will provide a safe and advanced diverse marine science capability to Australia.

Dr. Andrew Johnson, Group Executive, Environment, CSIRO said, “The award of this contract is an important part of a four-year process by CSIRO through the “Future Research Vessel Project” to build a new and highly advanced  research vessel. R/V Investigator will significantly boost the oceanographic,
geoscientific, fishery, and ecosystem research capability available to Australian marine researchers.   The new vessel will deliver benefits to many Australian agencies and underpin science discoveries from Southern Hemisphere marine environments.  We have selected Sembawang Shipyard and Teekay Shipping as the right partners for CSIRO through a rigorous  evaluation process and have full confidence that both companies will together deliver our new vessel to our required standards.”

February 18, 2011