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9-30-05: The plant is nearly complete. After strong Labor Day winds set construction back a few days, construction moved right along. The receiving side of the plant is complete and we will have our first train of 62 cars show up tomorrow morning. The distribution side of the plant is nearly complete as well. Just a few odds and ends left to button up and the plant will be fully operational. |
| Here is your first view of inside the building. This view is looking north down the catwalk and conveyor that runs over the top of the bins. Not a great place to be if you don’t like heights. |
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There was one car of Urea that came in yesterday morning and allowed us to test the backside of the plant. It was a good test and really light warm up for the shuttle coming tomorrow morning. |
Here is that Urea car dumped into the bin. 100 tons doesn’t quite make a dent in this bin. On some of our other plants we would have to put the doors to contain a single car of product but this bin will hold about another 75 car loads. |
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8-8-05: Now that construction has gone vertical progress can be seen almost everyday. Even in the couple of days since these pictures were taken the bins for the fertilizer tower, which are in the foreground, have been put on top of the tower and 2/3 of the west side of the roof has been framed. It is interesting how perspectives change, when just the outside cement walls were up, at 14 ft high they looked pretty tall, but now with the roof outlined they seem to have shrunk. Construction continues to move ahead and is still on pace to be completed for the fall season.
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7-11-05: With the entire floor finally poured the construction now goes vertical. Rebar is being set for the remaining walls while pillars and supports for the roof and conveyors go in. The shell of the unloading shed is also up. This will allow us to unload fertilizer out of the elements and give us a place to park the locomotive when not in use. The picture on the right is just a different perspective – looking northwest from the terminal. |
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06-09-05: Although at times it seems that nothing is going on in the field, construction keeps moving forward. There is still about one third of the main floor yet to pour, but now that the receiving pit (upper left corner) has been completed and the track is being put down, work can start on the rest of the floor. In the foreground you can see where the towers will be bolted down and further back the walls of the different bins are starting to take shape. |
05-05-05: Today they started to pour the floor of the main storage area. They are pouring about a third of the floor at a time and at the time this picture was taken, they are about half done with today's pour. The workers setting the rebar are scheduled to work all weekend. So hopefully the next pour will be early next week.
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4-28-05: Construction is moving forward. In the foreground they are working on framing the legs for the fertilizer towers, hopefully they will be poured tomorrow. If you look closely you can see the forms for the north and west edges of the floor of the building in the background. The floor should be poured next week. Everything will be enclosed so this picture can start to give you an idea of the footprint of the building and how big it will be. The building will hold about 20,600 tons of fertilizer. The product will be delivered in trains of 65 to 70 cars so it will take just over three trains to fill the building. |
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| 4-20-05: These pictures are looking west from the liquid fertilizer tanks on to the construction of the new mega-plant. The picture on the left is the beginnings of the rail-receiving pit and the picture on the right is the indoor fertilizer pit and the footings for the tower. Construction is slated to finish about September so there is still a long way to go. Check back often for new pictures as the construction moves forward. |
