New silos rise six months after fire
By Michele Linck | Posted: Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Workers build concrete forms at the Ag Partners Co-op in Alton on Tuesday to replace the ones that were destroyed in a fire last July. (Staff photo by Michele Linck)
ALTON, Iowa -- In the view from above, the construction site for six news silos at the Ag Partners Co-op in Alton looked like a busy ant colony Tuesday morning.
Dozens of men dressed in heavy winter work clothes were bustling amid the re-bar, building forms for the silos even as churning ready mix trucks delivered the first of what will be 425 truckloads of concrete over a seven-day continuous pour. Two crews of 70 men each will work in alternating 12-hour shifts, day and night, throughout the week ahead.
The busy site looked much different from the way it did after a July 9 explosion and lingering fire destroyed six concrete silos there. Rubble and scorched grain lay on the ground for several weeks and fires inside the silos smoldered even longer. The state fire marshal determined that a bearing in a pulley at the top of the elevator overheated, causing a dust explosion and the fire that followed. One man was injured in the explosion.
The six new silos will replace those that were lost at what was then the Midwest Farmers Co-op. Their foundations remained useable, and the nearby corn dryer remained intact. Midwest Farmers Co-op later merged with Ag Partners, based Albert City, Iowa, effective Dec. 1, and now bears that name.
The contractor is Younglove Construction Co. of Sioux City. GCC Alliance Concrete, formerly Russell Ready Mix, of Orange City, Iowa, is supplying the concrete.
Younglove's superintendent on the project, Terry Dunnette, said his company is not only building the silos, but will install all the related machinery and equipment, such as the screening, spouters, conveyors, control room and sample room, as well as build a new truck-receiving building.
He said the construction method for the silos will leave in place the wooden slip forms, needed to pour the concrete lids for the silos. It was the slip forms of the former silos that caught fire after the explosion, spreading it to some of the grain inside the silos, fire officials said at that time.
Bill Lyster, Ag Partners' operations team leader for the Alton facility, said he wasn't there at the time and could not comment on that. But he said the walls of the new silos will be a little thicker than those of previous ones. The new silos will hold the same amount of grain, however, 1 million bushels altogether.
Lyster said he did not know the full cost of the project, and was traveling Tuesday and could not look it up. However, he said, the facilities were insured for replacement cost at the time of the fire.
Dunnette said while the concrete pour will take a week, the target date for completion of the whole project is July 1. "It's gonna be a push to get it ready," he said.
By the numbers
6 -- silos
140 -- silo height, in feet
1 million -- silos' capacity, in bushels
3,400 -- cubic yards of concrete used
425 -- ready mix truck deliveries
158 -- men on construction crew
30 -- hotel rooms, to house most of them
$4.7 million -- cost to build original silos in 1998
75 to 100 -- normal life-span of concrete silos, in years.
Dozens of men dressed in heavy winter work clothes were bustling amid the re-bar, building forms for the silos even as churning ready mix trucks delivered the first of what will be 425 truckloads of concrete over a seven-day continuous pour. Two crews of 70 men each will work in alternating 12-hour shifts, day and night, throughout the week ahead.
The busy site looked much different from the way it did after a July 9 explosion and lingering fire destroyed six concrete silos there. Rubble and scorched grain lay on the ground for several weeks and fires inside the silos smoldered even longer. The state fire marshal determined that a bearing in a pulley at the top of the elevator overheated, causing a dust explosion and the fire that followed. One man was injured in the explosion.
The six new silos will replace those that were lost at what was then the Midwest Farmers Co-op. Their foundations remained useable, and the nearby corn dryer remained intact. Midwest Farmers Co-op later merged with Ag Partners, based Albert City, Iowa, effective Dec. 1, and now bears that name.
The contractor is Younglove Construction Co. of Sioux City. GCC Alliance Concrete, formerly Russell Ready Mix, of Orange City, Iowa, is supplying the concrete.
Younglove's superintendent on the project, Terry Dunnette, said his company is not only building the silos, but will install all the related machinery and equipment, such as the screening, spouters, conveyors, control room and sample room, as well as build a new truck-receiving building.
He said the construction method for the silos will leave in place the wooden slip forms, needed to pour the concrete lids for the silos. It was the slip forms of the former silos that caught fire after the explosion, spreading it to some of the grain inside the silos, fire officials said at that time.
Bill Lyster, Ag Partners' operations team leader for the Alton facility, said he wasn't there at the time and could not comment on that. But he said the walls of the new silos will be a little thicker than those of previous ones. The new silos will hold the same amount of grain, however, 1 million bushels altogether.
Lyster said he did not know the full cost of the project, and was traveling Tuesday and could not look it up. However, he said, the facilities were insured for replacement cost at the time of the fire.
Dunnette said while the concrete pour will take a week, the target date for completion of the whole project is July 1. "It's gonna be a push to get it ready," he said.
By the numbers
6 -- silos
140 -- silo height, in feet
1 million -- silos' capacity, in bushels
3,400 -- cubic yards of concrete used
425 -- ready mix truck deliveries
158 -- men on construction crew
30 -- hotel rooms, to house most of them
$4.7 million -- cost to build original silos in 1998
75 to 100 -- normal life-span of concrete silos, in years.
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