The Navy fixed its heavily damaged Aegis missile cruiser, the USS Port Royal, which ran aground near the Honolulu Airport in February but is abandoning repair work on the coral reef damaged by the grounding.

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Navy suspends repair work on coral damaged by warship

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 11:47 a.m. HST, Nov 16, 2009

The Navy has decided against additional coral stabilization and rubble removal operations at the site where the $1 billion cruiser USS Port Royal ran aground in February.

Navy and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources divers suspended operations in June because of high summer surf. Up to that point the Navy had spent $7 million reattaching nearly 5,400 coral colonies and righted eight large boulders. In addition, contractors used a barge-mounted, bucket system to remove 250 cubic yards of rubble created by the grounding.

Because of threatened legal action by the state, the Navy has never said what caused the grounding, although there were reports that the ship’s navigational equipment was broken. The state has said it still plans to file suit against the Navy early next year.

The Navy spent $40 million to repair the cruiser which was in Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard’s dry dock 4 for seven months before returning to the fleet on Sept. 24. The Navy has not said when the cruiser and its crew of 300 sailors will be certified to return to sea duty.

Dry-dock crews from BAE Systems and the shipyard replaced the warship’s sonar dome, reinstalled rudders and completed structural repairs to the ship’s tanks, superstructure and underwater hull. The sonar dome, located under the bow, was the most heavily damaged part of the vessel. In addition, four sections of shafting were replaced, struts that support the propulsion shafts were realigned and the underwater hull was repainted blue.

The $1 billion warship ran aground Feb. 5 in 14 to 22 feet of water about a half-mile from Honolulu Airport. Nine tugboats and ships pulled the ship off the reef on the fourth attempt Feb. 9.