The U.S. Navy has awarded a $15 million, five-year contract to a Biddeford firm for architectural and engineering services.

The contract, announced Tuesday by Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, specifies that the majority of the work by Oak Point Associates will be performed in Maine, primarily at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

The rest of the work will be at Navy and Marine Corps facilities in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, as well as other areas in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s mid-Atlantic region, which stretches from Maine to North Carolina. However, Rob Tillotson, the president of Oak Point, said it’s unlikely the company would perform work farther south than New York.

Oak Point was one of 11 companies that bid on the contract, which was awarded on a competitive basis. The contract, which was required to be awarded to a small business, is expected to run through May 2021.

Tillotson said the contract award was based on the qualifications of the companies competing for the work. Under the contract, the Navy sets an overall dollar amount, and Oak Point and the military will negotiate over the scope and cost of the projects to be done.

The work includes construction, renovations, life safety code studies, interior space planning, design studies, engineering, design site work, landscaping, paving and other projects.

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Tillotson said the company has 75 employees, including architects, engineers and construction managers. New people will be hired if needed, he said, but that will be based on the timing, amount and specifics of the work needed.

Oak Point had a similar earlier contract with the military, Tillotson said, and worked at the Kittery shipyard. He said much of the work was related to conserving energy, such as upgrading insulation and heating and ventilating systems.

“We’ve been updating things at the shipyard for some time,” he said.

The company also designed a new armed forces reserve center for the Maine National Guard in Brunswick, he said.

The Naval Facilities Engineering Command is in charge of planning, designing and building shore facilities for the Navy and Marines.

Oak Point also has a background in designing schools, such as Falmouth Elementary School, and has been working with Portland officials on a plan to replace Hall Elementary School, which city voters approved in a referendum vote last month.

Oak Point has a satellite office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com


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