Facility Feature
CHS SunPrairie Builds Its Third Rail-Loading Grain Elevator, Features Slipform Concrete Storage

Lansford, ND — When CHS SunPrairie held a grand opening June 26, 2018 for its new Wiley Terminal near Lansford, ND (701-784-5850), a truck from the Backes Brothers farm near Glenburn, ND was the first to unload grain into one of two receiving pits at the elevator.

Other grain handlers have included the receipt of the first load at facility ribbon cuttings. What made this opening special was that the Backes Brothers bid in an auction for the right to dump that first load, raising $2,100 for Lansford Fire and Ambulance. Their farm name now is included on a plaque commemorating the opening outside the new elevator’s office building.

“This is our third shuttle loader,” says Operations Manager Larry Aberle, a 27-year veteran of the Minot, ND-based CHS member cooperative. “We also have rail terminals at Minot and Bowbells (ND), but there was a need for this service in the northern part of our territory.”

CHS SunPrairie built the new $18.5 million, 1-million-bushel slipform concrete terminal at a site along U.S. Highway 83, about halfway between Minot and the Canadian border.

In addition to grain produced in that part of North Dakota, Aberle says, Canadian grain from three nearby border crossings finds its way to the Wiley Terminal. (While the site has a Lansford mailing address, its name refers to “Wiley Junction” on the Northern Plains Railroad, a short-line serving the site and connecting to CP Rail at Kenmare, ND.)

CHS selects Vigen Construction Inc.

The CHS Construction Department in Inver Grove Heights, MN, under the leadership of Jim Gales, did the facility design, specifications, and put the project out for bids in 2016. CHS then awarded a contract to Vigen Construction, Inc., East Grand Forks, MN (218-773-1159), which previously had built an elevator for CHS SunPrairie at Mohall, ND.

“We started construction with drives and tracks in October 2016,” says CHS Project Manager Jeremy Burkhart, who has been with the company for 15 years. “Groundbreaking took place in April 2017, and the facility was fully functional in July 2018.

“Vigen did an excellent job,” he adds. “They worked through the entire winter. The slip was poured in temperatures as low as 10 above zero.”

Also working on the Wiley Terminal:

• VAA, LLC, Plymouth, MN (763-559-9100), performed structural and civil engineering services.

• Hope Electric, Hope, ND (701-945-2460), was the electrical contractor and installed automation systems.

• Power System Engineering, Inc., Prinsburg, MN (320-981-0311), was responsible for the electrical and automation engineering.

• Farden Construction, Inc., Maxbass, ND (701-268-3127), did earthwork for the project.

• Northern Plains Railroad, Fordville, ND (701-229-3330), handled construction of a 6,800-foot loop track with a capacity of 130 covered hopper cars.

Terminal elevator has 6 big concrete tanks

The slipform concrete elevator includes six 130,000-bushel tanks standing 40 feet in diameter and 130 feet tall plus four smaller interstice tanks. The structure also includes five overhead bins supplying a Buhler cleaner, four truck loadout overhead bins, and a square section housing the bulkweigher.

The big tanks are outfitted with KanalSystem aeration/unloading floors supplied by North American Equipment Co., Inc. Floors in all six tanks are powered by two Airlanco 50-hp centrifugal fans at 1/14.3 cfm per bushel through exterior ducting.

Each of the big tanks also is equipped with a four-cable TSGC grain temperature monitoring system and radar-type level indicators supplied through Hope Electric.

To supply the elevator, incoming trucks are sampled with a Gamet Apollo truck probe, then weighed on a 120-foot inbound Fairbanks Scale equipped with RF card readers under the control of a one-Weigh™ scale automation system.

After samples are tested and graded in a grain lab inside the nearby office building, trucks are routed to one of two 1,100-bushel mechanical receiving pits. (A third pit can receive grain from railcars.)

The pits feed a pair of GSI 20,000-bph drag conveyors, which then feed a pair of GSI 20,000-bph legs. These receiving legs have 20x8 Maxi-Lift TigerTuff buckets mounted on a 21-1/2-inch ContiTech belt.

Terminal loads in under six hours

These legs deposit grain into a pair of Schlagel Synchroset nine-hole distributors. Four discharges are capped off for further expansion later.

The distributors then send grain off to storage via two GSI 20,000-bph drag conveyors. Inbound grain can be run through a Buhler 10,000-bph cleaner prior to storage.

Rooftop equipment also includes a Schenck Process baghouse as part of the facility’s dust collection system.

The storage tanks empty onto a 60,000-bph Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyor in a below-ground tunnel. This conveyor can split its flow to the receiving legs and a 30,000-bph loadout leg outfitted with two rows of Maxi-Lift 16x8 TigerTuff buckets on a 36-inch belt to achieve 60,000 bph.

Outbound grain is run through an 80,000-bph bulk weigh loadout scale from Vigen Construction with a oneWeigh control system. Workers atop railcars are protected by a trolley unit designed by VAA and built by Vigen Construction running the length of seven cars.

Aberle says that so far, the Wiley Terminal has loaded 105-car trains in as little as 5 hours 45 minutes.