PORTLAND – The Navy agreed to a schedule change that bumps up construction of the first DDG-1000 Zumwalt class destroyer at Bath Iron Works, reducing an anticipated workload gap, Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday.

The stealthy DDG-1000 is the successor to the mainstay Arleigh Burke destroyers built at BIW and at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi.

Both shipyards had been scheduled to build the lead ships – one apiece – but Ingalls had an edge in the construction schedule by getting delivery of materials first. Instead, the Navy will now send those construction materials to Bath.

That means the Maine shipyard will get an earlier jump on construction on parts of the project, compared with the previous timetable.

“This has been the culmination of many months of discussion,” said Collins, R-Maine, who was notified Tuesday in a phone call from Dolores Etter, the assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition.

The move is seen as helpful both to BIW by stabilizing its work force and to the larger Ingalls shipyard in Mississippi, which is juggling several different programs while recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

BIW, which employs about 5,800 people, has been scrambling to fill a potential gap in work as the Arleigh Burke program wraps up and the DDG-1000 ramps up between 2008 and 2010. The shipyard is considering bidding on smaller Coast Guard cutters and a ship called the “joint high-speed vessel” for the Army and Marines, among other things, as it seeks to avoid laying off skilled workers.

Tuesday’s decision doesn’t change the Navy’s plan to let Bath and Ingalls simultaneously build the lead ships in the program. After building one ship apiece, the Navy will decide how to allocate the remaining five ships based on performance.

Bath Iron Works, which is owned by General Dynamics, hadn’t received official word from the Navy, but the company was encouraged by Collins’ announcement.

“I don’t think anyone is saying it’s going to eliminate that gap [altogether] but it should help the transition,” said Jim DeMartini, Bath spokesman.

While the DDG-1000 announcement was good news, funding questions remained for another important project, the Littoral Combat Ship.

The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to strip funding for the second of two Littoral Combat Ships being built at Bath Iron Works’ partner shipyard in Alabama.

The Littoral Combat Ship, 55 of which are to be built, has been expedited by the Navy because it wants small, speedy ships capable of working in shallow coastal waters. But the program has been plagued by cost overruns.

Originally, the Navy wanted to build a pair of ships under two different designs and choose the best one. But the Appropriations Committee said the Navy should require construction of only one of each design to make a decision.