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The Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility is located about three miles northeast of Pearl Harbor in a ridge of volcanic rock in an area that provides its name. The storage was built between 1940 and 1943 and is still in use today. In June 1995, the Facility was designated a Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers and referred as the eighth great wonder of the world. There are a number of applicable articles available on the Internet. I used Google and searched for Red Hill Fuel Storage. There is a lengthy article written by J. David Rogers, Ph.D. that contains a number of interesting sketches. An excellent overview was written by CAPT George Sullivan, USN (Ret) for the May 2007 issue of Pau Hana Koa, a monthly newsletter for members of the Hawaii Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).
Several years before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Navy recognized that the existing aboveground fuel storage tanks near the harbor presented a vulnerable enemy target. All of the fuel was stored in unprotected tanks next to the Submarine Base. Standard practice at that time for storage protection was to dig a trench and bury fuel tanks; however, this was impractical for the amount of fuel oil needed to be stored at Pearl Harbor. The Navy came up with a plan to dig a series of tunnels and insert tanks vertically. Finding a suitable site presented problems in view of the porous volcanic rock near Pearl Harbor. The Navy finally settled on Red Hill. At that time, Red Hill was under cultivation for sugar cane and pineapple plantations. The Navy leased the land, cleared and leveled it. Eventually the Navy acquired the property through condemnation.
The Navy’s plan to excavate huge vertical tank chambers instead of horizontal tunnels had never been attempted previously. There are twenty subterranean vertical vaults (cylindrical steel tanks) hollowed out of rock. Each tank has a height of 150 feet and a diameter of 100 feet. At the top and bottom of each cylinder is a hemispherical dome that adds 100 feet to the height, providing total tank height of 250 feet; i.e., each tank equals a 20-story building. Reinforced concrete surrounds each tank varying in thickness from about three feet to eight feet with the lower dome resting on a huge plug 20 feet thick. Surrounding the cement is rock. To determine the depth necessary to protect the tanks from an aerial attack, the engineers gathered information from the Army Air Corps, multiplied it four-fold and rounded the figure upwards to 100 feet of rock cover. The 20 tanks are located 200 feet apart in two straight rows. They can hold over 250 million gallons of fuel and are in use today.
Centered between the two rows are two tunnels, one above the other, connected by an elevator. The upper tunnel near the top of the tanks is approximately 2,300 feet in length with a width of almost 13 feet and a height of 11 feet. The lower tunnel is located below the tanks and contains three large fuel lines as well as a narrow tract on which a battery-driven locomotive operates to haul personnel and supplies. The lower tunnel is 3.4 miles in length, running between the tanks and a receiving pump house at Pearl Harbor. It takes the batter-driven locomotive 30 minutes to make the run.
Construction began at Christmas 1940; cavities were constructed by blasting out the surrounding volcanic rock. Then steel quarter-inch tanks were welded together to form the tanks. Most of the work was done in secrecy. Fuel piers were built at Pearl Harbor as well as roads, tunnels, pumps, etc. The number of men on the project reached a peak of 3,400 in June 1942 and remained at that level until October 1942 when the first two tanks were completed and turned over to the Navy for operation. By February 1943, the Navy had assumed operation of ten completed tanks. The remaining ten tanks were completed by July 1943 with a final cost in 1942 dollars of $43 million along with the loss of 17 lives.
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Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage
Click here to download the newsletter in its entirety.
The Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility is located about three miles northeast of Pearl Harbor in a ridge of volcanic rock in an area that provides its name. The storage was built between 1940 and 1943 and is still in use today. In June 1995, the Facility was designated a Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers and referred as the eighth great wonder of the world. There are a number of applicable articles available on the Internet. I used Google and searched for Red Hill Fuel Storage. There is a lengthy article written by J. David Rogers, Ph.D. that contains a number of interesting sketches. An excellent overview was written by CAPT George Sullivan, USN (Ret) for the May 2007 issue of Pau Hana Koa, a monthly newsletter for members of the Hawaii Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).
Several years before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Navy recognized that the existing aboveground fuel storage tanks near the harbor presented a vulnerable enemy target. All of the fuel was stored in unprotected tanks next to the Submarine Base. Standard practice at that time for storage protection was to dig a trench and bury fuel tanks; however, this was impractical for the amount of fuel oil needed to be stored at Pearl Harbor. The Navy came up with a plan to dig a series of tunnels and insert tanks vertically. Finding a suitable site presented problems in view of the porous volcanic rock near Pearl Harbor. The Navy finally settled on Red Hill. At that time, Red Hill was under cultivation for sugar cane and pineapple plantations. The Navy leased the land, cleared and leveled it. Eventually the Navy acquired the property through condemnation.
The Navy’s plan to excavate huge vertical tank chambers instead of horizontal tunnels had never been attempted previously. There are twenty subterranean vertical vaults (cylindrical steel tanks) hollowed out of rock. Each tank has a height of 150 feet and a diameter of 100 feet. At the top and bottom of each cylinder is a hemispherical dome that adds 100 feet to the height, providing total tank height of 250 feet; i.e., each tank equals a 20-story building. Reinforced concrete surrounds each tank varying in thickness from about three feet to eight feet with the lower dome resting on a huge plug 20 feet thick. Surrounding the cement is rock. To determine the depth necessary to protect the tanks from an aerial attack, the engineers gathered information from the Army Air Corps, multiplied it four-fold and rounded the figure upwards to 100 feet of rock cover. The 20 tanks are located 200 feet apart in two straight rows. They can hold over 250 million gallons of fuel and are in use today.
Centered between the two rows are two tunnels, one above the other, connected by an elevator. The upper tunnel near the top of the tanks is approximately 2,300 feet in length with a width of almost 13 feet and a height of 11 feet. The lower tunnel is located below the tanks and contains three large fuel lines as well as a narrow tract on which a battery-driven locomotive operates to haul personnel and supplies. The lower tunnel is 3.4 miles in length, running between the tanks and a receiving pump house at Pearl Harbor. It takes the batter-driven locomotive 30 minutes to make the run.
Construction began at Christmas 1940; cavities were constructed by blasting out the surrounding volcanic rock. Then steel quarter-inch tanks were welded together to form the tanks. Most of the work was done in secrecy. Fuel piers were built at Pearl Harbor as well as roads, tunnels, pumps, etc. The number of men on the project reached a peak of 3,400 in June 1942 and remained at that level until October 1942 when the first two tanks were completed and turned over to the Navy for operation. By February 1943, the Navy had assumed operation of ten completed tanks. The remaining ten tanks were completed by July 1943 with a final cost in 1942 dollars of $43 million along with the loss of 17 lives.