A $1.7 billion contract has been awarded for the reconstruction of a dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery,  the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced Friday.

Currently, the shipyard’s Dry Dock No. 1 can only accommodate Los Angeles-class submarines, which means it will be obsolete when those submarines are removed from service some time after 2030, according to a press release from Collins’ office. Failing to modernize the dry dock would hinder the future missions of Navy submarines, the release said.

Collins, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, helped secure $475 million towards the project in fiscal year 2022 and also helped get $160 million for the project in last year’s appropriations bill. Work is expected to be completed by June 2028.

In the press release, Collins called the project “vital to our national security” because it will allow the shipyard to maintain the Navy’s submarine fleet.