CRREL was formed on 1 February 1961 from a merger of the earlier
Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) with the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory (ACFEL).
Antecedents and establishment CRREL's antecedents and establishment were chronicled in an official history. In 1944-53 the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established three independent organizations that were the antecedents to CRREL. Within its New England Division, the Corps of Engineers founded the Frost Effects Laboratory to "coordinate research on the effects of
frost on the design and construction of roads, airfields and structures in frost-affected areas," based in
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1944. The Corps of Engineers'
St. Paul (Minnesota) District established its Permafrost Division in 1944 to determine design methods and construction procedures for the construction of airfields on
permafrost. The Corps established
SIPRE (the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment) in 1949, which moved to
Wilmette, Illinois, in 1951. Its purpose was to "conduct basic and applied research in snow, ice and frozen ground." In 1953, the Corps merged the Frost Effects Laboratory and Permafrost Division of the St. Paul District to establish
ACFEL (the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory) in Boston. In 1959, SIPRE researchers participated in the establishment of
Camp Century in
Greenland to study technical and scientific issues with a facility, based on the Greenland
Ice Cap. Having built a new facility for the combined SIPRE and AFCEL organizations, the Corps established CRREL on 1 February 1961 in Hanover, New Hampshire.
1961-1986 During its first quarter century, CRREL researchers and staff were active in the
Arctic,
Antarctica,
Alaska and the
Great Lakes, providing climatic history data, addressing resource extraction issues and extending winter navigation.
Drilling through ice caps In 1966, CRREL researchers successfully drilled through the Greenland ice cap to a depth of . The effort took three years, but provided a continuous ice core that represented more than 120,000 years. This extended the ability of scientists to interpret climatic history and became an early source of information about global
climate change. In 1968, the same CRREL team was the first to penetrate the Antarctic ice cap, after drilling through over of ice, providing a climatic record at a second location on the globe.
Facilitating Alaska North Slope oil development traversing discontinuous
permafrost in Alaska The 1967 discovery of oil north of Alaska's
Brooks Range raised two basic questions that CRREL was positioned to answer as a consultant to participating oil companies: how to extract oil from frozen terrain,
permafrost, or from under the perennially frozen
Beaufort Sea, and how best to transport the
crude oil to the continental U.S. for refining and consumption. CRREL staff members participated in the exploration of two transportation options, the use of an ice-breaking oil tanker, and the use of an over-land pipeline that would cross much of Alaska over regions of permafrost. As for the Beaufort Sea, CRREL researchers conducted studies of the properties and behavior of arctic
sea ice, which would present a problem for off-shore drilling operations. CRREL researchers were active participants in both voyages of the
icebreaking oil tanker SS Manhattan to assess the feasibility of the sea transport option. At the same time, CRREL engineers reviewed and advised the federal inspector of the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline. During the construction of the pipeline, CRREL researchers studied the engineering implications of foundations and roadways over permafrost and ice.
Freshwater navigation In the 1970s CRREL supported a Corps of Engineers initiative to extend navigation through the
Great Lakes and
St. Lawrence Seaway throughout the winter. They developed methods to address icing of
locks and the clogging of waterways with floating ice that included booms, bubblers, and coatings of locks.
Cold War role ice cap CRREL played a role in assisting the
U.S. Air Force to establish and maintain a system of
Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line facilities during the
Cold War era. In 1976, a CRREL researcher was instrumental in the moving of a 10-story-high, 3,300-ton DEW Line facility on the Greenland Ice Cap from a foundation that had been compromised by the movement of the ice on which it was built to a new foundation. In 1984, CRREL personnel completed their survey reports for 31 sites of the new
North Warning System that replaced the DEW line. A continuing scientific exchange between CRREL and Soviet cold regions research institutions began in 1972, these included the
Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in
Leningrad and Permafrost Research Institute in
Yakutsk. Customers funding CRREL research included various components of the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy. In addition, civilian agencies turned to CRREL for research answers, including the
National Science Foundation, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and
NASA. In addition, a variety of private organizations funded CRREL research to solve problems that they faced. CRREL's list of technical reports lists 27 topical categories, covering science and engineering.
Military research CRREL continued to grow its capability to serve the U.S. military with programs in signal propagation that would facilitate the detection of enemy movements via
infrared imaging,
radar,
acoustics or
seismic sensors in any meteorological conditions. It served the environmental needs of the U.S. Army by facilitating the identification and clean-up of contaminants on training lands, due primarily to partially detonated explosives or
unexploded ordnance (UXO). Other researchers addressed mobility issues with vehicles over snow and muddy terrain. CRREL researchers participated in defining tactical runway requirements for the
C-17 military transport aircraft.
Civilian research base,
Canadian Coast Guard Ship Des Groseilliers (right) with
CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent as a
Boeing C-17 takes off. CRREL staff continued to make a mark in polar research, both in the Arctic and Antarctic. In the Arctic, CRREL researchers were active in modeling shipping in the
Northern Sea Route and the
Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment, conducted in the Arctic Ocean from October 1997 to October 1998 to provide polar input to
global climate models. Other researchers performed traverses of Antarctica and Greenland to collect data, pertinent to
global climate change. In 2010, a CRREL researcher was co-chief scientist on another
icebreaker-based scientific mission, called "Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" or ICESCAPE, to determine "the impact of climate change on the biogeochemistry and ecology of the
Chukchi and
Beaufort Seas." Other CRREL researchers developed ways to upgrade and maintain the research facilities of the U.S.
National Science Foundation in Antarctica, including the design and construction of a new
South Pole Station and developing criteria to allow modern aircraft to land on snow runways. CRREL staff explored and helped develop a new overland supply route across the
Ross Ice Shelf over the Antarctic Range and the Antarctic ice cap to lower the cost of supplying the South Pole Station. In 2016, CRREL research civil engineers designed, built and tested a new snow runway for the
McMurdo Station, called "Phoenix". It is designed to accommodate approximately 60 annual sorties of heavy, wheeled transport aircraft. In its Corps of Engineers
Civil Works mission, CRREL researchers developed innovative ways to avoid ice jams and databases to address the widespread occurrence of such problems. A substantial ice engineering facility was built to support modeling of these problems. A remote-sensing and
GIS (geographic information system) facility and organization were established to better employ the resources of
satellite imagery and mapping of information to address problems worldwide. Another major facility, the Frost Effects Research Facility, was built to study problems associated with airfields and roadways, subject to freeze-thaw. An automated loading machine was acquired to simulate the passage of vehicle and aircraft tires on pavements. In building technology, researchers helped develop statistical means to identify snow and icing loads throughout the United States and standards for measuring heat loss, roof moisture detection, and frost-protected shallow foundations.
Realignment In October 1999, CRREL became a member of an umbrella organization of Corps of Engineers laboratories, called the
Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). The consolidation of seven laboratories, the Coastal and Hydraulics, Environmental, Geotechnical and Structures, and Information Technology Laboratories in
Vicksburg, Mississippi; the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in
Champaign, Illinois; CRREL in New Hampshire; and the
Topographic Engineering Center in
Alexandria, Virginia, established the ERDC in four geographic sites around the country.
Remediation of trichloroethylene spills Originally, CRREL cold-room facilities used
trichloroethylene (TCE) as a refrigerant. At the time there were few known environmental hazards attributed to TCE. Subsequently, TCE has been identified as a carcinogen. In 1970, an industrial accident resulted in a spill of approximately 3,000 gallons of TCE. In 1978, TCE was introduced into the ground via an experimental well. After the 1990 discovery of TCE in groundwater, CRREL embarked on a remediation plan, approved by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), with assistance from the U.S. Army Toxic and Hazardous Materials Agency and the Corps of Engineers New England Division. NHDES reports that CRREL no longer stores TCE on site and the remediation of TCE in the groundwater is subject to monitoring in test wells. According to an Army press release cited in the local newspaper, the Army expanded monitoring of TCE at other locations on the CRREL campus and found some elevated readings in 2011. Thereafter, they initiated a monitoring well and soil sampling program to map the concentrations of the substance on the site. The information gained should lead to a new cleanup strategy for the site, according to the 2012 report. Army environmental specialists have detected TCE at neighboring residential and school properties. ==Awards==