BELFAST - Front Street Shipyard supersized its plans for a new travel lift this week, upgrading from a 300-ton to a 485-ton (440-metric ton) model.

The hoist is part of a planned expansion, first announced in November 2012, that would allow the Shipyard to service larger vessels, up to 150 feet in length.

In January, city officials amended a contract rezoning agreement with the Shipyard to allow for the marine portion of the plan to go forward, including an expansion of the pier that supports the Shipyard's current 165-ton travel lift. 

A second phase of the plan includes a 24,000 square foot workshop building to accomodate the ships brought ashore by the new lift.

The travel lift was identified in the agreement with the city as having "300+" ton capacity, and in public discussions of the project Shipyard President JB Turner likewise anticipated the capacity at around 300 tons.

"Well, we realized we might need even more muscle than that," read an entry from the Shipyard's February newsletter.

The new 485-ton lift is on order from Cimolai, an advanced metal construction company in Italy, according to the newsletter, and that it is expected to be operating in Belfast by August. 

Speaking on Thursday morning, Turner explained the decision to go with a larger lift.

"There are still some projects out there in the 150-foot range but with steel hulls, so we needed the extra capacity," he said.

The new lift will stand 51 feet tall, he said, and will work alongside the existing 41-foot-tall, 165-ton travel lift.

Turner said the footprint of the proposed 24,000 square foot workshop building would not change but it might need to be several feet taller. The Shipyard is currently in the process of revising those plans in light of the decision to go with the larger lift, he said.

The building, which has been discussed for construction on the site of a municipal parking lot on Front Street, was not included in the current agreement with the city and is anticipated to be taken up in a separate set of negotiations dealing with land-side improvements.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com