CHAPTER 5.7
MASTER PLANNING AND SITE PLANNING
As a result of a series of conferences between representatives of
Holmes & Narver and J-Division, held during the week of November 15,
1948, basic functional criteria were formulated which, together with
the findings and recommendations of the Reconnaissance Report of January 7, 1949, provided the master planning for the Project.
Because the test dates had been rather firmly established for the
early part of 1951, the indefinite nature of the early criteria inposed major planning problems upon the Engineering, Procurement, and
Construction units of the Holmes & Narver Organization, and required
that considerable judgement and foresight be exercised to anticipate
changes in basic criteria and increases in the scope of the work and
still schedule the work for completion within the time limit.
Because the Atoll had been used for similar tests before, there
were some installations available for use.
In the interests of economy it was decided to rehabilitate these wherever possible. Similarly,
it was decided to use the several islands for the same purposes as in
the previous tests. Thus Parry and Eniwetok were selected to serve as
support islands, while Runit, the Aomon-Biijiri-Rojoa Group, and Engebi
were to be used as experiment sites.
In addition, based on the findings
of the Reconnaissance Report, Bogallua Island was selected as an experiment site.
The over-all planning problem modified coordination and distribution of many types of installations for a limited area and for a Project whose ultimate scope was not known until the late stages of construction. Although the increases in population for the various sites
do not constitute the most definitive index of growth in scope, it is
significant that the planned population of the support islands, Parry
and Eniwetok, increased from 1,200 to more than 4,400. Furthermore,
developments showed that not even the Users could foresee the ultimate
size of the Project. Yet, the attempt by the planners to prowide for
changes and increases in scope was proved successful by the fact that
a very high percentage of the changes and increases were made without
serious disruption of original plans.
Details of the planning for each major island are given in the
following subsections. Maps showing site plans and layouts for each
island are presented in Appendix C of this Completion Report.
PARRY ISLAND
Parry Island was chosen as the site for AEC headquarters, including
the test control center and the base for laboratory personnel and functions. It was also to serve as the construction and maintenance headquarters for H & N and as dispatching center for inter-island

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