Cargill Animal Nutrition acquired an existing feed mill operation and then decided to replace the main operation portion of the mill with a new slip form mill tower. The new tower will be built adjacent to the existing complex. Once complete, the existing components, except for warehousing and some of the auxiliary buildings and support components, will be demolished. The components maintained will then be tied back into the new mill tower.
VAA originally laid out the concept for Cargill to solicit design build proposals and Cargill awarded the contract to Vigen Construction. We are now proceeding with the final design through a contract with Vigen Construction. Due to strict permitting in Arizona we performed a thorough ADA compliance analysis of the entire existing facility and worked on office upgrades. The project also incorporates new rail receiving and a tie into existing truck receiving area and an architectural site plan.
The project is a full line feed mill with cattle, poultry, dairy, hog, birdfeed, etc. Full line feed mills are more complicated due to the varying grains, clean grains and seeds for birds and texturized feeds with molasses and oils for horses and dairy.
Due to the size of the equipment there is an increased depth of the basement required. This increased depth caused an increased backfill pressure from the earth. VAA’s structural engineers developed a design for the new facility to withstand this backfill pressure. A special design was also developed in the basement portion of the slip wall to accommodate loads of a future load-out bin addition.
Some equipment is being reused from the existing facility and cannot be moved until the last minute. Special considerations are being made for this. Close coordination and field measurements are being made to ensure designs are accurate. Close coordination with the contractor is also underway, to ease the tie-in to the existing building and facilitate sequencing of construction. We will also have carefully timed site visits during construction.
The Owner had difficulty meeting permit requirements due to the building height relative to the set back requirements. The building has five different roof levels and several different bin bottom levels creating challenges in the slip design. The site is a relatively small area for the mill creating a need for a compact design layout for the equipment. The plant design is evolving as we are preparing construction documents/drawings and we are coordinating with the client in incorporating ongoing changes. We continue to work closely with the client and the constructor to overcome all of these challenges.
