 Due to generally holding lower-ranked jobs, their assigned dwellings were predominantly government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) located very close to the Y-12 plant, in the one residential area designated as colored.Kenneth Nichols, the MED District Engineer, was told by the main construction contractor for the K-25 plant that the Negro construction labor force had a large turnover rate, so Nichols gave permission to set up a separate black women's camp.When Leslie Groves visited the plant with K. T. Keller of Chrysler, Keller saw twelve Negro women sweeping the thirty-foot wide alley between the production units, and said "Nichols, don't you know there is a machine made to sweep a concrete floor like this?"