Many of you have either seen or heard about our latest expansion project. Let me share a little bit about it with you. With the increased corn acres we had been looking for quite some time for a way to handle those new bushels. Work began putting this project together over the winter and in early spring the decision was made to proceed.

We acquired land across the tracks, directly west of our shuttle facility in Kindred for the construction. The building will be 300 ft X 400 ft, have 16 ft sidewalls and a peak height of 84 ft. The building will be able to be filled from three dump sites at 40,000 bushels per hour.  The floor is sloped to the middle so that approximately 2/3 of the corn will flow out by gravity to a reclaim conveyor in the floor. The project is scheduled so that we can begin filling in the first half of October. When completed the building will hold an estimated 3.8 million bushels of corn.
 

5-18-07: Here is the very beginning of groundwork at the site. An access road has been built and excavation is just starting. This picture is taken looking southwest from the fertilizer plant.

5-25-07: While excavation continues on part of the building the aeration tunnels are being put in place for the north half of the building. This picture is taken looking straight west from our shuttle facility. 

6-12-07: The north wall has been poured and the south wall is being formed up. The piling crane is pounding the pilings for all of the support columns.

6-13-07: What a difference a day makes. For as wet as the job site is, work got back into full swing within 2 to 3 days.

7-11-07: The north and south walls have been poured; all the pilings have been pounded and most of the floor has been excavated, refilled and graded. The support columns are being poured and the reclaim tunnel has been excavated. The floor is sloped to the middle so that the top of the reclaim conveyor sits four feet below the level of the sidewalls.

7-27-07: Here the support beams have been put into place and some of the first roof sections are being lifted into place.

8-22-07: All the roof sections have been placed. Now just the peak is left to put in place. Once the roof is complete the millwright can begin installing the conveyors (which are already onsite). The reclaim tunnel is almost done, the cap is yet to all be poured because they can only do that in 100 foot sections. 

9-10-07: Towers are up and are ready to place the conveyor that will feed the building from the three dump sites. The building floor is being leveled to grade for cement later this week. The roof sturcture is about ready to have steel placed.

10-12-07: The building is getting close. Just a few more days of tying up loose ends and the building should be able to get filled. There will still be some finish work to be done, such as finishing the sheeting on the roof, but getting corn in the building is our #1 goal.  

10-25-07: The first test of the building to make sure the equipment works properly. The corn rides into the building at a rate of 40,000 bushels per hour on a 48 inch wide belt. It then falls the 70 some feet to the floor below. On October 26, the top belt is aligned properly and full blown filling is under way. Some of the roof is yet to go on and the reclaim conveyor is onsite but yet to go in (you can see two of the sump holes in the floor).