Principle completes intermodal project for CenterPoint Properties

ROSEMONT - Principle Construction Corp. has completed construction supervision services for the construction and improvements on three buildings at the 13-acre intermodal facility operated by Saturn Agricultural Inc., 1700 Center Point Way, in Joliet.

Principle acted as Saturn's design and construction adviser, overseeing the leasehold improvements provided by CenterPoint Properties and Harbour Contractors, as well as the building and equipment installation by Agrilogistics.

The site is home to three structures - a 1,500 square foot operations building, 3,150 square foot load out building and an 8,780 square foot receiving and storage building - that accommodate the flow of incoming hopper trucks hauling dried distiller's grain and soy beans.

Principle oversaw the design and construction of the system that will allow trucks to drive onto the site, weigh their load on a certified truck scale, and then unload their cargo into a 20-foot-deep pit inside the receiving building. The product is then conveyed into the load out building or to the storage building. After the product is redistributed into containers, it is weighed one more time on the outbound truck scales.

An elaborate network of below grade receiving bins, horizontal conveyors, vertical conveyors, spiral ducts, gate valves, dust control systems and explosion control equipment was installed to speed the process of unloading the inbound trailers and speed the delivery of product to either the storage building or one of the two empty storage containers in the Load Out Building. Product is weighed at various intervals during the process until it is finally loaded into the storage containers via the use of articulating conveyors.

"The efficient flow of product was the driving force behind the design for the sites building and material handling equipment," said Mark Augustyn, Principal of Principle Construction. "Complex, computerized systems control the flow of product as soon as it is trucked onto the site."

The 20-foot pit was one of the unique challenges on this project. The pit had to accommodate a significant amount of robust equipment that would allow two trucks to unload their product simultaneously and in a matter of seconds, In addition to the equipment, the pit had to remain "bone dry". A daunting task considering the detention pond was immediately adjacent with a water level more than 10' above the bottom of the pit. Consequently, enhanced drain tile, ejection pump and water proofing systems were constructed so that all of the ground water remained outside of the pit.