Imperial Valley press., 1943-12-13
Vast Military
Storage Base
Speedily Built

AUBURN, "aSll., DtC. 10 NOt-b-
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 Lend-Lease administration and
private contractors.
The huge roof will provide Stor-
age space for military supplies be-
fore they are shipped overseas. But
the 100000 square feet of ware
house to be covered is only part of
the work going into what is known
as the Auburn holding and recon-
Signment point of the TranSporta-
tion Corps, Army Service Forces.
AS the length of the name indi-
Gates, the Auburn H&RP 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.
CLEAR LAND
In fact, in the three months since
the work started, the engin ers have
cleared all foliage off the large area
of land formerly made up of dairy,
berry and vegetable farms, leveling
a two and one half mile long
space for construction of the depot.
When completed, the depot will
have y warehouses, each 1886 feet
long and 200 feet wide, more than
40 miles Of railroad trackaga to
provide freight car storage for ap-
proximately l,400 cars, more than DO
acres Of open shed storage, and
scores of buildings for adnlinistra-
ton of the vast supply center.
The warehouses are to be laid out
in blocks three abreast across the
depot area Three air forces ware
houses 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-
dition 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.
Except for the steel rails, most of
the depot is being constructed from
non n-critical materials, said Maj.
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
., ,.+t
Earth-moving, incidentally, has
been another big part Of the initial
construction. Some of the largest
earth-moving equipment ever used
in the West = giant tournapulls,
carryalls and Euclid Wagons-haVe
been used to pack 100000 cubic
yards of dirt around the project.
LARGEST EVER BUILT
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 man at
each of three perpendicular COL
umns-were needed to put the 100
foot center sections of the ware
house into place. AS soon as they
had secured the trusses, other work.
men moved right into start laying
the roofing, while inside, other
workers were building the firewalls
and pouring the concrete floors.