“It was very apparent that there had been a lot of work done underground,” said Tonita Goodwin, industrial development director, City of Richmond, and Kentucky Chemical Demilitarization Citizens’ Advisory Commission (CAC) and Chemical Destruction Community Advisory Board (CDCAB). “There has been so much progress made, where it used to just be a parking lot. It’s good to see construction going on for this project, now the main plant construction is done, and to keep people employed here through building this facility.”

The EDT facility will house the Static Detonation Chamber (SDC) that will be used to destroy mustard-agent munitions in the Blue Grass stockpile. The site has been under construction since October 2014.

“We’re basically working on every part of the site at once,” said Aaron Renfro, quality assurance team lead, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Site utilities are substantially complete and we have been working on concrete placement for footers and foundations, construction of the EDT Service Magazine and moving buildings in.”

Moving buildings in refers to the pre-manufactured modules of the EDT Support Building (ESB) and the EDT Enclosure Building (EEB), Renfro said. The six modules of the ESB began arriving Nov. 24 and are all slated to be at the Blue Grass site by the end of this week. The 12 EEB modules will arrive early 2016.

The EDT Service Magazine will provide holding capacity for the munitions after they are transferred from storage and will mark their entry point to the destruction process. The foundation and walls are in place, and the building will receive its concrete roof over precast panels shortly, he said. It is the first site structure to go vertical, but the other buildings are progressing rapidly.