[no source, no date]
TNT PLANT NOW
FOREMOST DEFENSE PROJECT
Flow of Material to
Plant Will be Speeded Since Classification In A-1-a Bracket
5508 EMPLOYED
New High Employment
Roll Reached; Expect To Start Manufacture in September
The
priority rating of the Weldon Spring Ordnance Works at Weldon Spring, which
will manufacture TNT and DNT for national defense, was raised last week from
A-1-b to A-1-a, which places it in the top bracket, ranking with the nation’s
foremost defense production units.
Flow of
needed material will be accelerated and stabilized, it was said by Maj. Carl R.
Dutton, ordnance officer and post commander.
Employment
reached another new high of 5508 this week. There were 5008 persons on payrolls
of the Fraser-Brace Engineering Co. and about 500 on rolls of sub-contractors
and the Government. Last week the total number of workers was 5330.
Materials
used in construction to date include 7,515,938 board feet of lumber; 180,366
tons of rock and 16,516 yards of concrete. 12 miles of standard-gauge railroad
track have been laid and 31 miles of hard-surfaced road have been built.
Supplies from 1459 railroad cars have been unloaded.
Anticipating
operation in September of the first units of the six TNT and two DNT production
lines originally planned, grading has been started on a traffic relief highway
on the reservation which will serve the area in which will be built the new
production lines, plans for which under an expansion program recently were
announced.
The new
hard-surfaced road, leading from U. S. Highway 61, will parallel the present
principal entrance road for about a mile and a half and then will swing away
from the vicinity of the original production lines for a distance of about two
and a half miles. The original production lines will be surrounded by heavy
fencing.
Another
currently important undertaking is the driving of a 300-foot tunnel six feet
square through limestone beneath one of the important roads on the reservation
to carry a water line from the five deep-driven wells which will provide water
for the production lines [one or more lines missing]
