TTR propane contract

Sandia contract

Work Contractor shall provide delivery of up to 125,000 gallons per year of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to the Tonopah Test Range (TTR), Tonopah, Nevada. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) may order up to the total 125,000 gallons of LPG. SNL shall not be obligated to purchase the total quantity. Contractor shall deliver to 22 SNL owned LPG tanks with a total capacity of 23,500 gallons. Contractor shall provide monthly delivery and if required more frequently. Most of the tanks are located at two sites at TTR, station 3 and 9. Winter peak consumption is approximately 5000 gallons weekly. Annual consumption is approximately 125,000 gallons. Upon delivery contractor shall fill tanks with propane and insure transfer of propane is done in a safe manner. Access to TTR: The contractor shall stop at the access gate to enter TTR. The contractor will receive a visitor’s badge. In the event the contractor has to access the limited area an escort will be provided. Mandatory Requirements Must deliver to Tonopah Test Range, Must be available for customer service on demand. Must be able to obtain badge access to a Government Air force Base.

Hardly earth shattering news, but you have to wonder how Groom Lake gets their fuel. The TTR can just order what it needs, but Groom has to be more clever. It is known that truck from west enter Groom Lake from the Mercury Highway. I met a truck driver that delivered LOX or nitrogen (I forget). He drove to gate 700 and then the military took the truck on to the base.

reply to post by gariac


Yes very interesting. Could they be using the advertizement for the TTR job to find potential companies to contact about providing fuel sources for Area 51. It seems like with a top secret facility that they would not advertise for a position to be filled but rather they seek out who they want for the job. This does make me wonder how they get all of their supplies they need to make the base function into the base?

reply to post by I B Dazzlin


The big question is all that road building at Groom. Where do you get a road crew with top secret clearance! Then there is the bartender at Sam's Place. Does he wear hearing protectors? Blinders? The very routine is not so routine if you have to maintain some level of secrecy.

EG&G billing

Note the EG&G billing. Some is basic hardware store merchandise. Now in the case of EG&G, they had the clearance, so getting paid by the CIA wasn't that odd.

I have to assume Edwards or Nellis fronts a lot of the Groom Lake purchases. The TTR, not being a secret, can simply buy what the need, but they too can be fronting for Groom.

Tonopah (the town, not the base) had one hell of a Radio Shack. Actually a combination Radio Shack and Western Auto. It was the best stocked Radio Shack regarding parts that I ever saw. It turned out the TTR would pick up parts at the "shack". IIRC, the guy who ran the Radio Shack was a former base employee.

Does all this mean? I see the contract about TTR hiring made ​​public in official documentation, but Groom Lake seems to be that say nothing. gariac from what I understood of contract is that TTR requires a contractor to refuel it, right? I guess they need the fuel for white heavy trucks, aircraft, vehicles, vans etc..

What does that have to do it Groom Lake in all this? Groom like TTR does not request help of an outside contractor for fuel supplying? Or is it totally different?

reply to post by rayktheon


Groom Lake can't advertise in the open for contracts. They have to use cutouts. I would assume Nellis does the contracting and then once the contact is awarded, the contractor finds out where the job is really located.

Note the AFFTC does bids all the time on fbo.gov. Small items could be bid for delivery to Edwards and then moved to Groom Lake. But for cases where the work needs to be done on base, I assume they do the bidding through Nellis.

A few years ago they paved a lot of the roads on the range. That was done with private contractors as far as I could tell. Some of the earth moving equipment came from Cashman Rentals.

I don't see a good definition of "cutout" on the internet, but basically it is a term used in intelligence work. A cutout is an intermediary between the black world and the white world. Kind of like Air America providing air transport for the CIA. Hey, those aren't CIA planes, they are Air America planes. Get it?

reply to post by gariac



Doubt resolved. Anyway, it seems that with janet flights they do something, almost all flights are aimed at Groom Lake "officially" actually go to TTR, ie, in the flight plan record put "TTR "although Janet airline go to Groom Lake. A similar relationship is the subject Groom fuel.

reply to post by rayktheon


Good point. The TTR (KTNX) is the cutout for Groom Lake (sometimes TKM or XTA).
"Where are those white planes with the red stripe going?"
"Why they all go to the Tonopah Test Range. That is my story and I'm stickin' to it."

Flight related to Groom Lake fly at 14k and 15kft. TTR flight are higher. TTR flights nearly always include TPH (Tonopah civilian airport) in the routing. Flights to the TTR keep the Janet callsign while flights to Groom use the callsign of the month.

reply to post by gariac


In case of realize a contract to supply fuel to Groom Lake, how makes it this process?

That is, Groom Lake through Nellis or Edwards proposes a job offer or a contract to find a contractor that furnishes the fuel? In case it is so, how they makes it transport operation?

contractor going to groom restricted perimeter and stopped, then civilian trucker is lowered again and take a military the truck to the base?

reply to post by rayktheon


I have never seen the paperwork for how Groom Lake vendors get paid. I have old CIA documents showing EG&G getting paid, but that may not be how things are done with the USAF.

I think I stated the gate 700 routine clearly, but here goes again with a bit more detail. I met a truck driver that delivers LOX (liquid oxygen) to Groom Lake. He enters the NTS using the Mercury gate. [Mercury is the company town of the NTS, visible from route 95.] He drives to Gate 700. That is the gate on the NTS that leads to Groom Lake. [You can see Gate 700 from Sedan Crater when you take the NTS tour.] He leaves the truck and enters the guard shack. A driver from Groom Lake then comes to Gate 700 and drives the truck to Groom Lake. The LOX is transferred and the truck is driven back to Gate 700. Then the civilian truck driver exits via Mercury.

reply to post by gariac


What applications have the use of liquid oxygen at Groom Lake?

reply to post by rayktheon


You can google for aircraft applications for LOX, but it has other uses too. If you are going to burn something "with passion", using an oxidizer help, though you don't need pure O2 for that. "Funny cars" use nitrous oxide. Some rockets use LOX.

LOX in fighter aircraft

I would guess Groom has liquid nitrogen handy too. [I just didn't find that truck driver. ;-) ] It is a very common industrial gas. You can use it in test ovens, use the nitrogen to purge a system of oxygen, etc.

Groom Lake would have whatever any other air force base has, except a public relations office. ;-) Of course, Groom has stuff other bases don't have, such as an office of reading internet forums, the office of dossiers of range border visitors, etc.