Workers completed the latest step in the construction of the Earth-Covered Magazine for the Blue Grass Static Detonation Chamber 2000 Nov. 6.

“A team of workers covered the magazine with a specialized membrane, similar to a tarp, to protect it from water encroachment and to keep the earth placed on the magazine from eroding,” said Bob Hess, construction quality assurance representative, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “They then tucked the edges of the membrane into trenches at the bottom and backfilled the trenches with rock to hold it down.”

Previously, workers completed the placement of the earth on the steel-reinforced concrete structure and installed the magazine door. The 80-foot by 20-foot purpose-built magazine will provide on-site storage for munitions transported from storage at the Blue Grass Chemical Activity as they await processing in the destruction chamber.

“We have to have a secured storage area at the chamber site so there will be an adequate stock of munitions for the destruction process, like we do at the Explosive Destruction Technology site,” Hess said. “There will be days where the conditions may not be good enough to transport from the chemical activity, so the magazine provides us a buffer to be able to continue processing on those days.”

The next step is the application of a special coating to the concrete walls and floor inside the magazine. Static Detonation Chamber 2000 operations are expected to begin in 2022.