“The installation of the EEB steel will move us into the next phase of the project,” said Tom Mitchell, project field engineer, Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass. “As the steel construction progresses, we will move the Static Detonation Chamber (SDC) into the EEB and get it established, then complete the building around it and ready it for site testing.”

“It is very interesting to oversee the construction of the EDT site,” said Aaron Renfro, structural civil engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “It mirrors the main plant in many ways, but is much more compact and condensed to a smaller footprint. Seeing the EDT structural steel start to go up was a flashback to when we installed the first steel on the Control and Support Building in 2009.”

Construction has been proceeding rapidly, said Mitchell, but with a focus on safety and quality. The EDT Service Magazine’s concrete shell is complete and the six EDT Support Building modules have been installed. Additionally, 12 modules for the Outside Operations Support Facility are being fabricated and are expected to arrive at the site around the end of January.

The SDC will destroy approximately 15,000 155mm mustard projectiles in the Blue Grass stockpile, many of which have been found unsuitable for processing through BGCAPP’s main plant.