00:00Ashley Parker from the Atlantic.
00:04This might be more for someone from the mayor's office, but the White House had said that they were working with the mayor and her team to make sure there were precautions in place so that, for instance, the streets would not be damaged from the tanks.
00:19They mentioned potentially putting down steel plating, but they weren't sure that that had been confirmed.
00:24Can someone talk about what steps the city is taking, again, to help protect the streets from the wear and tear of the tanks and other equipment?
00:33Yes, thank you for the question.
00:34I'm Colonel Jess Curry, an engineer on the Army staff as well as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
00:40So if you go out to the parade route even today, you can see some of that work being put in place.
00:45And what that is is it started weeks ago with assessments working with National Park Service, Federal Highway Administration,
00:53and really bringing to bear the engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, our expert engineers that, around the world, assess the impacts of these types of vehicles on all types of pavement.
01:05So they've done that assessment.
01:07Based on that, we put together the plane that you'll see being put at key locations around the route.
01:12Primarily, it is metal plating that's being put down to address those areas where tanks have to steer sharply,
01:20and we get a little bit of grinding reaction from between those tracks.
01:25Throughout the straightaways, we really have very little or low concerns that there will be any other damage.
01:31The plates and where we're putting them is designed to minimize or eliminate all possible damage.
01:37So that's ongoing now, will be in place before the parade begins, and will come up immediately after.
01:43Is there anything beyond the plates, or is that sort of the – is there anything beyond the plates, or is that kind of the bulk of it?
01:48Well, thanks for asking, because there is.
01:50That is certainly the most visible thing that everyone's going to be able to see out along the parade route.
01:56But in addition to that, we're putting down a lot of matting in the staging areas, things, again, to just mitigate any potential.
02:02We're using an abundance of caution.
02:05We want to protect these streets.
02:06This is our capital city as well, so we're committed to ensuring that we minimize any possible damage.
02:13But in addition to the protective measures being put on the road, what you can also see during the parade is the tanks all have brand-new rubber track pads placed on them,
02:22which increase the padding that they have underneath each track to minimize that potential damage.
02:28And it's a parade, so they're going to be moving slowly.
02:32They're going to be very careful.
02:33The operators that are coming with the units to this parade, they're very, very well trained at what they do
02:39and give us complete confidence that we're going to be able to execute this parade with little to no damage to the D.C. streets.
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