Building dock

A building dock is a graving dock used to assemble and erect a new ship rather than to repair one. Blocks are landed on keel and bilge blocks in the dewatered basin and welded together; when the hull is structurally complete and watertight, the dock is flooded for float-out. Building docks replaced inclined slipways for large vessels because they remove the dynamic loads and risk of a gravity launch and allow controlled flooding instead. Most VLCC, container, and LNG newbuildings use a building dock with a gantry crane spanning the dock. Compare the building berth, which still launches.