Grain loading facility sprouts overnight

Behind a berm of earth visible from along Interstate 90 a beehive of activity, large parts of it very much obscured, has been taking place for the past eight months.

But in the course of a few days during the third weekend in June, one could not help but notice - maybe even be shocked - at what seemed to suddenly emerge from the earth at the site of Highline Grain's shuttle facility at Four Lakes.

The structures are now approaching their maximum height of 140 feet, but have done so in an impressive and very speedy fashion to the bystander.

"Over the period of about seven days, they were able to pour a foot of concrete every hour," Keith Bailey, general manager and CEO of Ag Ventures and the operations officer for Highline Grain said. "The forms just slide up and keep moving."

The process is called slip-forming, Bailey explained. "We don't do a lot of it around here, (but) it's been done here in years past; you see a lot of concrete silos that have all been slip-formed."

The speed has been accomplished, in part because crews are working 12-hour shifts. There are approximately 90 people working onsite. Much of the movement of the concrete to the forms was accomplished with the use of wheelbarrows at the top of the structure, Bailey said.

What is visible now is the extent of the concrete work. An additional steel tank will be built on the south end of the structure. "It won't be quite as tall but it will hold about the same amount of grain as the last tank on the north end," Bailey said.

The structure is called an "eight pack" with four concrete tanks on each side. What is seen from I 90 is just half the structure. In addition, there are three inner-size bins that sit between the larger bins.

The eight tanks each hold about 110,000 bushels with the inner-silos 20,000-40,000.

An additional steel structure will sit on top the current concrete tanks and include the "leg," the conveyance that will bring grain into the storage units, or to the load-out. There are three such legs, Bailey said.

Along with the construction of the storage facility, work goes on at ground level to build railroad tracks that will encircle the facility and allow loading of 110-car trains. Those trains, about 35 a year and operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe, will travel a little over six miles to Cheney where they will be dispatched on the main line and sent to market.

There are two different target dates for the project's completion. "One is called substantial completion and that's mid-December," Bailey said. That's when the first grain will begin arriving at the facility.

The facility is scheduled to start shipping grain in mid-January, 2016.

Time-lapse views available online

With the camera up and running west of the Four Lakes grain terminal site, view how the structure was created so quickly by going to oxblue.com/open/high-grain/fourlakes.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].