Tunnel proposed as terrorism training site
Congress has directed the Army to evaluate the feasibility of using the Memorial Tunnel in West Virginia as a counterterrorism training facility. The 2,800-foot-long, one-lane vehicular tunnel is located about 30 miles southeast of Charleston and has been out of service since 1987.
Parsons Brinckerhoff, in conjunction with the Science Applications International Corporation, has been evaluating its feasibility as a testing and training facility for counterterrorism, domestic preparedness, and emergency response activities for more than a year. The West Virginia Parkways Economic Development and Tourism Authority, owner of the tunnel, supports this proposed use of the tunnel.
A meeting was planned at the tunnel later this summer (after press time) to determine what would be needed to make the tunnel a suitable training site. Attendees at the meeting will include representatives of the Departments of Defense, Justice, Transportation, and Energy; national laboratories; the intelligence community; the Environmental Protection Agency; the West Virginia National Guard; major urban mass transportation systems; commercial railroads; Amtrak; and vehicular tunnel authorities.
Working with the National Domestic Preparedness Office and the U.S. Department of Justice`s Office for State & Local Domestic Preparedness Support, the Memorial Tunnel program team could develop and implement curricula that ultimately would be used to supplement the instructional programs offered by the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, the National Domestic Preparedness Center, and the National Fire Academy.
The tunnel had been used for firefighting-related research in the past. During the mid-1990s, it was used as a ventilation test facility under the sponsorship of the Federal Highway Administration. At that time, the federal government and the Massachusetts Highway Department invested about $25 million in physical improvements to the tunnel to gain a better understanding of the dynamics associated with fire and smoke migration and control in confined spaces. The capital improvements included the addition of new high-temperature exhaust fans and jet fans, specialty instrumentation, a spill containment system that would allow zero environmental discharges, and thermal protection of the tunnel`s fire zone so it would withstand the effects (2,0007F temperature) of the approximately 100 fire and smoke tests conducted.
For additional information, contact Dick Madenburg at PB Facilities, Inc., a subsidiary of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., at (714) 973-4880, e-mail: madenburg@pbworld.com.
Source: EPCRA Update, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency–Region III, June 1999, 2-3.
