Investigation of the Roosevelt Road Transmitter Site, Fort Richardson, Alaska, Using Ground Penetrating Radar

The Roosevelt Road Transmitter Site is the location of a decommissioned bunker on Fort Richardson, near Anchorage, Alaska. The site was used from World War II to the Korean War as part of an Alaskan communications network. The bunker and support buildings were vandalized following its decommissioning in the mid-1960s, resulting in PCB contamination of the bunker and soils around the above-ground transmitter annex. CRREL conducted a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigation of the site in June 1996, at the request of the Directorate of Public Works on Fort Richardson. Nine transect lines were established, each being profiled with 100- and 400-MHz antennas. Both antennas systems defined the extent of the bunker and identified the presence of buried utilidors. The 100-MHz antenna provided large-scale resolution of the bunker, limits of site excavation, and large stratigraphic horizons in the undisturbed sediments. The 400-MHz antenna provided finer resolution that allowed identification of steel reinforcement in the bunker ceiling, utilidor walls and floor, and the walls of the inner and outer bunker. High amplitude resonance and hyperbolas in the record characterize the response from the Transmitter Annex foundation, buried pipes, and utilities. The GPR survey shows its utility for detecting the extent of abandoned underground structures and identifying the extent of original ground excavations.