VAA was hired by Cargill De-icing Technologies, a division of Cargill, to perform engineer design services at its facility off the shore of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.  The project goal was to upgrade the facility replacing a wood salt storage dome and the support equipment associated.

Civil services included creating site plans inclusive of drainage and erosion control.  The site created challenges with its size, areas of disrepair and city imposed limitations of salt discharge into the water system.  Our civil team developed utility, grading and drainage plans for city approval.  Most of the site was re-graded, drainage systems were established to pump some of the water back into storage tanks while the rest of the water, which was carefully limited, naturally sheet flowed into the channel.

A majority of our general arrangement services included laying out conveyors with a total capacity of 2,200 tons per hour and towers, connecting the existing conveyors off the mine shaft, and the conveyors that fed into the bridge that filled the concrete dome.  We additionally provided the lay out for the position of the concrete dome, its floor height, the reclaim tunnel underneath, all the reclaim equipment (pile activators and vibratory feeders), reclaim conveyors and the lay out to reconnect them to their shipping system.  Providing general arrangement services for an existing facility requires the strong experience to be able to fit numerous conveyors into the existing spaces as well as working with the many different vendors involved.  VAA provided the conveyor design experience and communication skill necessary to successful lay out the facility.

While providing mechanical engineering VAA designed the conveyors, laid them out, including showing mechanical equipment, take ups, guards, drives, and the attachments of those to walls and the conveyor stands.  Our designers worked seamlessly with the manufacturer/supplier who provided CEMA calculations to ensure that all components were correct.

Due to the corrosiveness of salt careful consideration was given to the design and layout to maintain all elements of the facility.  The structure and towers are all engineered lumber.  VAA designed long span bridges, supports for the bridges, and support that were built out of steel and coated with epoxy to keep the salt out, for the large drive sections for the conveyors, stairs and grading were fiberglass.  Our team carefully coordinated to connect the new wood structure to the old wood structure.  Consideration was taken throughout the design as conveyors changes requiring braces and cross beams to be relocated and reintegrated.  

VAA worked with Dome Technologies on the proprietary dome design, which holds approximately 35,000 tons of stored salt.  The project was successfully completed in fall of 2008.