Walsh Federal breaks ground on $166M naval engineering test facility at Cape Canaveral

Florida Construction News staff writer

Walsh Federal joined the U.S. Navy and the Naval Ordnance Test Unit (NOTU) this week to break ground on a $166 million Engineering Test Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 130,000-square-foot facility will support prototyping, development, testing, evaluation, and production of support equipment and flight hardware for the Trident II D5 Life Extension 2, a next-generation submarine-launched ballistic missile system.Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast awarded a $165.7 million design-build-bid fixed-price-award-fee construction contract to Walsh last November, to modernize and consolidate the command’s mission into a single, state-of-the-art facility on a 33.5-acre site.

“The Resident Officer in Charge of Construction (ROICC) Space Coast field office was built to deliver this fast-tracked, 26-month construction project to support the Navy’s D5 Trident II missile Life Extension program,” Lt. Cmdr. Pete Fovargue, ROICC Space Coast said in a news release announcing the contract award. “The importance of the project centers around supporting, updating, and maintaining the weapon systems that will arm the Navy’s new Columbia-class nuclear-powered submarines through the year 2084.”The new building will include a high-bay, single-story layout with a mezzanine on a reinforced concrete foundation, steel frame superstructure, and reinforced concrete exterior wall panels. It will include large laboratory and test areas, as well as administration, mechanical, electrical, communications, and building services spaces. Several high-bay areas are designed to accommodate overhead bridge cranes, storage racks, and tall vertical test elements.

“We have assembled a talented team and are ready to deliver this research and development facility for the first land-based test missile launches,” Fovargue said. “We are eager to partner with this contractor to meet the high standards required for this one-of-a-kind engineering test facility.”

The contract includes two unexercised options that could raise the total value to $168.2 million. The project was competitively procured via the federal contracting website, with Walsh Federal selected using the Best Value Trade-Off Source Selection process from two offers received.

Construction work is underway in Brevard County, with completion expected by January 2028.