Updated at 7:28 a.m., Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Vehicle repair shop opens on Kwajalein Atoll
Advertiser Staff
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District and U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) officials have opened the newly constructed Vehicle Paint and Prep Shop (VPP) on Kwajalein Atoll.The military began using Kwajalein for military purposes in 1944.
Project Manager Rodney Leong said the main cause of premature equipment and vehicle failure on the island is corrosion caused by the constant exposure to the salt-laden air of the atoll.
Honolulu District's Kwajalein Resident Office (KRO) managed the $10 million, 20,000-square-foot VPP project that includes rooms for hydro blasting and undercoating, booths for abrasive blasting, metalization and paint spraying.
The facility also features administrative space and support facilities including utilities, paving, storm drainage, information systems, air conditioning, 25-ton dehumidification and mechanical ventilation.
Kwajalein is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and is 3 miles long. It is the largest coral atoll in the world with 97 small islands surrounding the world's largest lagoon.
Kwajalein is the home of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test site, the Corps Kwajalein Resident Office and approximately 2,000 American military and Department of Defense civilians, support personnel and their families.
