The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-13
army ERECTING.
VAST STORAGE.
DEPOT ON COAST.
BY LLOYD TUPLING


The task Of building a roof over
46 acres Of former farmland one
Of the worlds largest roofing jobs
- has been undertaken by the
Army, the Iend-Lease administra-
ton and private contractors.
The huge roof will provide stor-
age space for military supplies be-
fore the year shipped overseas. Eut
the 2,000,000 square feet of ware
house TO be covered is only part
OF the work going into what is
known as the Auburn holding and
reconsignment point of the Trans
portation Corps, Army Service
Forces.
AS the length of the name indi-
Gates, the Auburn H8SRP and AAF
depot is a project Of some magni-
tude, and neither the Army nor the
contractors are letting any grass
grow under their feet to speed its
completion.
In fact, in the three months since
the work started, the engineers
have cleared all foliage off the large
area Of land formerly made up of
dairy, berry and vegetable farms,
leveling two-and-one-h half mile
long space for construction OF the
depot.
When completed, the depot will
have IL warehouses, each 1896 feet
long and 200 feet wide, more than
40 miles of railroad trackage to
provide freight car storage for ap-
proximately 1,400 cars, more than 40
acres Of open and shed storage,
and scores Of building for admin
/ istration of the vast supply center.
Army officers conducting the
press tour left unanswered the ques-
tor of what would be put into the
warehouses and where it would go
from here. They merely said it was
to be used for storing general mill
tary and lend-lease supplies and
all of 1t would be headed in one
6irection-to hit the Axis.
The warehouses are to be laid
out In blocks three abreast across
the depot area. Three air forces
warehouses will be situated at the
south end Of the installation, with
the nine others grouped at the other
end. Space also will be left for ad-
oitton Of six more warehouses.
The site was chosen because of
exceptional rail facilities available.
Trans-continental lines of the Mil
waukee railroad and Northern Pa
cific skirt the east and west sides
OF the depot area. A maze of rails
interconnecting the two mainlines
and the depot's warehouses is being
laid by Morrison -Knudsen Co.. of
Boise, Ida, which received part of
the contract.
On the east side OF the Warehous-
es % parallel sets of track will be
laid to handle incoming and out
going freight, and two sets of paral-
lei tracks will run between each of
the warehouses.
Except for the steel rails, most of
the depot Is being constructed from
non-critical materials, said Mai.
Adelon Hogan, Fort Lewis area en-
gineer, who supervises the project.
The vast project is scheduled to
be completed in the spring of 1914,
little more than nine months after
the first earth was turned.
Earth-moving, incidentally has
been another big part of the initial
construction. Some of the largest
earth-moving equipment ever used
ir the West-giant tournapulls, car
ryallS and Euclid wagons-have
been used to pack 100000 cubic
yards of dirt around the project.
The 800-foot-long warehouses
probably are among the largest par
TALLY pre-fabricated wooden struc-
lures ever built. The main roof
trusses-each in 50-foot sections
are shipped from Portland, Ore, and
are swung into place by Giant
cranes.
Extensive use Of machinery, pre-
fabrication and well-planned flow"
OF work has enabled contractors to
get along with fewer workers than
the size of the project would indi-
cate. For instance, only four men
"a crane operator and q man at
each Of three perpendicular columns
were needed to put the lO0-foot
center sections of the warehouse
into place. AS soon as they had Sc
cured the trusses, other worknen
moved right in to start laying the
roofing, while inside, other workers
were building the Prevails and
pouring the concrete floors.
Major Hogan said the schedule
called for completion OF another
warehouse every 10 days after the
first one is completed, which shows
the kind Of planning that Is going
into the job. It's far cry from the
governments projects of the 1905
and there wasn't a Wheelbarrow
OF. the whole job.