RAVENNA PLANT Guard to use old bomb-making site

Some of the heavily contaminated buildings will be burned.
By MONICA BOND
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
RAVENNA -- The Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant has contracted with MKM Engineers to demolish four of eight old bomb-making production lines to make the property safe for the National Guard.
MKM Engineers is based in Stafford, Texas, and will receive about $1 million to demolish each line.
A total of eight production lines, encompassing 121 buildings, will be either demolished or burned so the site can be developed for National Guard training. Four of the lines haven't been contracted for demolition yet.
The Army's Technical Center for Explosive Safety has determined 115 of the 121 buildings can be brought down with armored equipment, but they must be inspected as work progresses. The remaining six are too contaminated and must be burned, facility manager Mark Patterson said.
The Guard will use the cleared land for mounted training, which involves tanks and equipment.
"My goal is to get it safe so we can hand it over to the National Guard for training," Patterson said.
No date is set for demolition to begin. The plant is seeking approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the burns because paint on the buildings contains PCBs, which fall under the Toxic Substance Control Act. The plant must also get approval from the Ohio EPA and Akron Air, the local arm of the Ohio Department of Health.
"It could take another year or year and a half," Patterson said.
Historical use
The load lines are old production lines used to make bombs and shells during World War II, Korea and Vietnam wars. More than 32 million projectiles and bombs were made at the arsenal; about 18,000 people worked there at the high point of World War II, Patterson said.
The buildings are dangerous because of their historical use. Patterson said thousands of explosives are embedded in the buildings. When production was in full swing, the buildings were hosed down several times a day; the water carried explosive material into cracks and under the buildings.
"Anywhere the water could go, explosives could be," he said.
Burning is safer than taking the buildings down with heavy equipment because workers can set up the burn, then pull back to a safe distance, Patterson said.
He said the plant operators are listening to community concerns about environmental hazards. "We are trying to get the numbers [of buildings to be burned] down to a minimum," he said.