In the spring of 1918, it was therefore proposed that the last four ‘Omahas’ be built to a new design to match these British ships. To save time and allow as much use of existing orders as possible, the layout of machinery and central hull structure was retained. The ships were given an extra 18’ of length and 6’ beam, with normal displacement rising to 8,000 tons. The two fore-funnels were trunked together to make room for the bridge structure to be moved aft, allowing a pair of superfiring turrets to be fitted forward. The greatly increased beam was necessary to compensate for the extra topweight, as main armament was increased to include six 8” guns.It was accepted that these redesigned ships would be 1½ knots slower than the Omahas, but even though they ended up several hundred tons over their design load, in practice there was little difference in service speeds, as the larger hull improved seakeeping, and the deficiencies in the machinery of the early ‘Omahas’ were partly overcome. During construction, they were described as ‘improved Omahas’, but in service they became known as the ‘Newark’ class, after the lead ship.