Food Processing Facility

Hillshire Farm and Kahn’s Plant Sara Lee Corp., St. Joseph, MO

Services

250,000-square feet of structural steel

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Expanding its roster of food industry projects, the team constructed a state-of-the-art meat processing plant with difficult environmental specifications and on an extremely tight schedule.

Challenges

The facility’s size and the accelerated schedule were the two largest challenges of this project.  Experience and knowledge enabled the team to “hit the job running” and quickly integrate with the owner and designer so the project could be completed on schedule. The group worked closely with the designer to coordinate the release of design packages to support the construction schedule. Extensive Project Controls Systems not only supported the accelerated schedule, but also provided “real time” cost and budget information throughout this fluid and dynamic process.

Achievements

Complexity or uniqueness of construction
The structure is a single story with a basement level. Because approximately 80% of the interior space required a temperature of 35 degrees Fahrenheit, the exterior skin had to be comprised of primarily four-inch thick, insulated metal panels. Maintaining the integrity of the continuous vapor barrier around the “cold space” was critical to prevent moisture.

Providing the necessary expertise
The group’s experience building food processing facilities and environmentally-sensitive manufacturing space for the pharmaceutical and semiconductor markets were keys to completing this fast-track job without compromising environmental quality, worker safety or food safety. An in-depth understanding of cGMP (Good Manufacturing Processes) was instrumental in development of critical protocols for working in specific areas of the facility during construction. In addition, the team worked very closely with the owner to coordinate delivery, installation and hook-up of all owner purchased process equipment.

Results

This extremely large, $100 million facility was completed in just 14 months. It is now a fully functional manufacturer and distributor of hot dogs and select deli meats for Hillshire Farm and Kahn’s, a division of Sara Lee Corporation. When opened, this facility was considered the “state-of-the art” food processing facility in regard to food safety in the country.

_{Projects completed prior to 2005 were performed by McCarthy.}