New liners at ANC will make burial preparations more efficient

Work is progressing on the Arlington National Cemetery’s Millennium Project.
Columbariums are rising from the ground, niche walls line the property and a new system, never before used at the cemetery, is being placed into the ground throughout the 27 acre project: a pre-cast, pre-placed double-depth-concrete liners.
6,271 to be exact.
“The preset double internment liners really help us to maximize several things here at the cemetery. We are able to maximize burial space, because the liners are set up in fields in such a way that we can put the maximum amount of burial opportunities within the field,” Col. Joseph Simonelli.
The system also allows for better draining through compost-amended topsoil and unlike the current system allow two caskets to be placed in them
“Normally we would have to dig down - put first internment liner in and re-cover that back up, and on the second internment dig up the remaining portion and then fill it back over. This removes all of that from us,” Col. Joseph Simonelli.
By eliminating the need to constantly remove large amounts of dirt the cemetery will no longer need a soil storage yard and will make preparation time for a funeral more efficient.
“What we now can do is just dig down just 18 inches to the top of the liner and then do the first internment and fill it back over and then on the second internment we only remove that 18 inches of dirt on the top,” Col. Joseph Simonelli.
Only having to remove only 18 inches of soil means the cemetery no longer needs tractors with backhoes.
“One of the challenges that we have is that when we go back into an area we often, depending on the weather and the ground, we often have a tendency to dig up the landscape and we leave ruts in the ground. This will prevent us from having to move a lot of heavy equipment into the field so we can continue to maintain that prestigious national shrine standards all the time that we want here at Arlington National Cemetery,” Col. Joseph Simonelli.
Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel overseeing the project are eyeing a spring completion date for the liners.
“With the weather conditions and with the type of soils we have we are hoping for an early spring 2016 finish,” Joe Barr.
The entire millennium project is expected to finish up in early fall of 2016.
From Arlington National Cemetery, Patrick Bloodgood

[@seand67]

WOW

[@pdunc1976]

they need to go sky high.about 3-4 levels of outside mausoleum type that will do 2 deep.each mausoleum could be named for each branch of service and only medal of honor winners will be interned in them if they choose.you could intern 3-4-5-6..whatever on the same amount of ground space thus allowing for more future burials w/out running out of grounds.

[@thetruth4198]

Why would a grave need to be sealed? A dead body begins to deteriorate immediately after death and no method of burial will stop it. Why preserve a body anyway? U.S. funeral industry gouges many people, coaxing them to buy stuff that is simply going to be buried in the ground. Fortunately, veterans don't have to buy a vault if you're goung to be buried in a veteran's cemetery. People still get rooked into buying an expensive casket. Mausoleums are even more expensive and many have had the unpleasantness of having casket lids explode due to decomposition gases building up due to being sealed.

[@jasonking2943]

I hate lawn crypts, they don't seal so alot of times the liner is full of mud and water, they get brittle so taking the lid off sometimes causes it to crack. It's always a gamble if you have one on hand that will fit that model. And they are designed to allow water in and out....

[@dougdreyer4962]

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