parallel taxiway, construction of POL facilities, and the stockpiling of crushed rock for use in paving of the runway. At El Djema Sahim, no construction work is under way at this time. The detailed investigations in order to provide for the proper design of the runway are under way. At Boulhaut, no construction work as yet has been undertaken. That site is also under intensive investigation because of the rather unsatisfactory general foundation conditions that exist. We are taking core drills of available rock quarries to see what materials can be economically developed for use in the air base, and are making test sections using various types of materials so as to find the most economical design for the basement foundation and the pavement itself. The off-base POL distribution system is actually under construction between Casablanca and Nouasseur, and from Nouasseur to Sidi Slimane. That work is being carried on by French contractors in accordance with the terms of our agreement with the French Government. Because the question has been raised as to the carrying capacity of the runways, taxiways, and aprons, we are having a complete pavement-evaluation program study carried on. About 80 percent of the paving work that has been completed has been thoroughly tested with a 200-ton roller, which is a 100 percent overload, and there have been no evidences of failure or overstressing in that area. There have been at Nouasseur during the construction period five places where the 200-ton roller broke through during the testing of the base course before asphaltic concrete had been put in place. This testing with a heavy roller is for the purpose of developing whether or not any weak places exist in the foundation. Where they are found, corrective action is taken to assure that adequate, materials and strengths are developed in the areas where weaknesses have been shown. The contractor, the Atlas Constructors, have added quite a number of new personnel to the organization to strengthen it. Their resident partner member is a man of many years' experience in the construction field and has been the chief engineer of the principal sponsoring company, Morrison-Knudsen. They have also secured the services of a new foreign manager, Mr. Schaeer, who has done a great deal toward straightening out their administrative procedures, which were weak during the early stages of construction. REASON FOR WEAKNESS IN ADMINISTRATIVE SET-UP I believe there is some justification for weakness in the administrative set-up because of the fact that in the early days the French Government permitted only a total of 130 American personnel to be sent over to Morocco, and that was partially construction personnel and partially administrative personnel. When they actually started work in April of 1951 the contractor had a total of only 130 people there; yet by July 14 he did have the two major strips at Nouasseur and Sidi Slimane ready to take medium bombers. The contractor and the district engineer both laid great stress on the completion of the airfield facilities and less stress on administrative procedures. Mr. RILEY. Nouasseur and Sidi Slimane are the two bases that are the farthest advanced in construction? General WALSH. Yes; that is correct. Mr. RILEY. I have heard that at least one site originally selected had to be abandoned. Do you care to comment on that? Is that true or not? ABANDONMENT OF PROJECT AT MECHRA BEL KSIRI General WALSH. I have heard, and this is primarily hearsay because it happened long before I was over there, that they had selected for a fighter base a site called Mechra Bel Ksiri, and when it was considered desirable to possibly expand that for a mediumbomber base the costs were found to be so high because of the large amount of earth that would have to be moved that it was decided to abandon that site. Mr. RILEY. Did it ever reach the point where it could be used as a fighter base, or was it abandoned before that? General WALSH. It was abandoned before any work was done on the construction of the airfield facilities. The only work that was done was the preliminary establishment of a camp for construction personnel. Mr. RILEY. Could you or General Myers tell the committee why it was deemed necessary to put a fighter base there? General WALSH. A fighter base was one of the five fields that was authorized for construction in the Moroccan set-up. Mr. RILEY. Was that for the protection of the long-range bombers? General MYERS. That base serves a dual purpose, for the protection of the complex, but primarily as a base for the escort fighters to accompany the bombers on their missions. It is primarily an escortfighter base which is now planned at Boulhaut. Boulhaut is the fighter base. Other bases in the Mediterranean area are protective bases. There are other bases in the Mediterranean area that are fighter-protection bases, although these fighter escort units do have a defense capability. Mr. RILEY. As I understand the bases in Morocco, they were selected because they were under the jurisdiction of a friendly and cooperative nation, and also because of their accessibility to the supply lines. Would that be correct? General MYERS. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.) PIPELINE SYSTEM FOR TRANSPORTATION OF FUEL FOR PLANES Mr. RILEY. If I understand correctly, all these bases are tied together with pipelines for the transportation of fuel for the planes; is that correct? General WALSH. That is proposed with actual port facilities at Safi to the south, as well as Casablanca, and the actual pipeline construction is under way connecting the two bases that are in an operating condition. Mr. RILEY. But the pipeline has not as yet been completed? Mr. RILEY. When do you think it will be completed? General WALSH. That portion of it should be completed by the end of this calendar year-the connection from Nouasseur to Benguerir, and from Safi to El Djema Sahim to Benguerir. That should be completed by the end of 1953. Mr. RILEY. As I understand, there are no adequate roads over there for transportation; is that correct? General WALSH. No; I would not say "no adequate roads." They have pretty fair blacktop roads connecting Nouasseur and Casablanca and on up to Rabat into Boulhaut and over to Sidi Slimane. There is a fair road from Nouasseur to Benguerir and moderately fair roads from Benguerir to El Djema Sahim. They are not the type of road that would stand up well under heavy air traffic. Mr. RILEY. In other words, you consider it a logical and practical program to get these pipelines in for the transportation of very extensive quantities of fuel and fuel supplies that are necessary for these planes rather than trying to transport it in tank trucks over the existing roads from the ports? General WALSH. I feel it is absolutely essential to have that kind of set-up to properly supply the field with a large quantity of gasoline and other fuels that they must have. BREAK THROUGH OF BASE APRON CONSTRUCTION BY ROLLER Mr. RILEY. A while ago in your opening statement you said that the 200-ton roller had broken through the base runway construction at several points. General WALSH. Base apron construction. We had no trouble on the runways whatsoever. Mr. RILEY. That was at Nouasseur. Is that the result of the soil in the area? General WALSH. The soil at Nouasseur is called tuffa, which is very much like your kilichi in Texas. It is a fine foundation when it is thoroughly dry. It is a poor foundation when it is saturated, so you must take special precautions to design on the basis that it may become thoroughly saturated. And in order to insure that we have proper compaction of the materials that are placed on that type of base, we have used the 200-ton roller as a check against the daily inspection reports that we got that indicated the degree of compaction that was being secured under the period of construction. It is a standard procedure, and that is the reason the 200-ton roller was purchased and was used over there. Mr. RILEY. Would you say the apron and one runway construction had to be deeper or heavier than would be necessary where you had better soil conditions? General WALSH. That is very definitely true. The thickness of your one runway depends upon the foundation upon which it is built. At Nouasseur we had about 16 inches of base course with 4 inches of asphaltic concrete pavement. At Boulhaut, where the foundation is of a clay material, the thickness of the total pavement may have to be as much as 44 inches instead of 20 inches that we have at the other base. Mr. RILEY. That necessarily means more costly construction than we have been accustomed to in most areas in the country? PROBLEM RESULTING FROM DESIRE OF FRENCH FOR SEPARATE AMERICAN AIRFIELDS General WALSH. That is true; yes. I think another point that is desirable to remember is this: The original concept of this work was the extension of the existing fields because of the desires of the French Government, which, under the terms of diplomatic arrangements with them, were to furnish the sites. They determined it was desirable from their point of view to have the American fields at different sites than the existing French facilities, so instead of having a limited amount of work on an existing field, we have actually had to go out and build five fields right from scratch. The amount of earthwork and pavement work that was necessary at Sidi Slimane and Nouasseur was in excess of the total amount of earth work that was originally estimated to be done at all five sites because they were completely new bases instead of just an extension and the strengthening of an existing base, and the equipment that was purchased way back in January 1951, was procured upon the basis of an extension work job right at the beginning rather than on a new and complete construction job. So, when we had to change the concept as the result of the French desires, we had to use the equipment we had over there to do a new type of job, which, if we had known in the beginning, would have permitted us to get a diversified type of equipment for the work that was to be done. The design of the pavements had to be modified to a certain degree to fit the equipment we had in order to manufacture the aggregates that were to be used in that pavement design. Mr. RILEY. In other words, had it not been necessary to reach an agreement with the French authorities, you could have picked locations which would have required less expensive construction and at the same time served the purpose? General WALSH. Very definitely so. That has been a major factor in making some of this work quite costly. Mr. RILEY. There was only one field, I believe you said, that had to be abandoned because you found that the construction would be more expensive than you thought would serve the purpose. General WALSH. I believe that was primarily because of the proposed extension of that field from a fighter field to a medium bomber field, and as was brought out, there was no actual construction on the field itself undertaken. It was simply preliminary construction of the contractor's camp. There was no actual construction on the field. EXPENDITURES AT MECHRA BEL KSIRI PRIOR TO ABANDONMENT Mr. RILEY. Could any of you gentlemen give us the approximate expenditures there before the field was abandoned? General MYERS. Yes. The figures has been quoted as $103,000 expenditures on that construction camp. That figure of $103,000 is subject, I think General Wash, to perhaps some refinement. It is a figure that is carried in your cost data as expenditures there. General WALSH. I am not certain of the figure, but it is a figure approximately that General Myers indicated. Mr. RILEY. If you find that it is different from that, General, I wish that you would correct it for the record. (NOTE.—General Myers subsequently stated that the figure was $120,271.50.) OTHER AREAS IN WHICH WASTE OCCURRED any Now, General Walsh, did you find other areas in which money was wasted in the construction of these bases other than the fact that you had to have a different type of construction and were handicapped by not having the proper machinery for that construction until after the work had been started? General WALSH. I found indications that during the crash construction period there had not been as close control of labor as you would normally desire to have, but now they have a very excellent system of time checking of all personnel in the field in actual operations. They have an internal audit group which is completely divorced from the timekeeping group who actually make a check twice each morning and once during the afternoon of every man on the job to see that he is on the job and is actually working. That has been used since about the first of the year. Mr. RILEY. Is it proper to say that a great deal of this inadequate control of labor was due to the fact that we have only allowed 130 Americans in by our agreement with the French at the beginning? General WALSH. That contributed to it very extensively. Mr. RILEY. Has that condition been improved? General WALSH. Yes. We now have approximately 4,000 Americans over there. SOURCE OF MATERIALS Mr. RILEY. Are most of the materials shipped from this country, or are they purchased from the French Moroccans? General WALSH. We procure our materials from three general sources. The largest amounts are purchased from the United States. We do get certain materials from Europe, such as cement, because it can be procured there more economically than it can from the United States. We have bought and did buy during the crash period, quite a lot on the local French Moroccan market. That was done, however, under the terms of our agreement with the French that we would advise the French liaison mission as to what we desired to procure. They would canvass the market to see whether or not it could be procured locally without disruption of their local economy, and then they would designate what merchants the procurement could be made from. Mr. RILEY. Was your aggregate secured locally, or where did you get that? General WALSH. That was manufactured locally from either rock quarries, or from sand and gravel pits. Mr. RILEY. And it proved so be satisfactory? General WALSH. Yes. PAYMENT OF MOROCCAN TAXES Mr. RILEY. Do the French charge us a tariff, or customs on these materials that we ship in there? |