Silos go up at Liberty Grain site

• Liberty Grain silos

Adams Building Contractors workers clear snow from a foundation Friday morning at the Liberty Grain site between Kimball and White Lake as two recently constructed 150-foot silos loom in the background. (Chris Huber/Republic)

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KIMBALL — Two huge grain silos now tower over the prairie between Kimball and White Lake as the Liberty Grain site begins to take shape.

Adams Building Contractors of Jackson, Mich., finished pouring the walls of the 150-foot silos on Tuesday.

The next phase will be more complicated, said Jeff Dick, superintendent of the company.

Workers will have to strip off all the forms used to pour the silos and tie off the rebar before they’re ready to pour the roofs, he said. That work will begin the week of March 5.

The roofs will include openings for grain level indicators, for temperature cables, to pour grain and for fans.

The crews also have to build exterior conveyors to the roof, the bin bottoms and aeration trenches.

These two bins alone will likely be completed by June or July.

Each bin will hold 472,000 bushels of grain.

The next step is to begin building an eight-pack of 108,000-bushel bins, which will start at the end of March, Dick said.

A portion of that construction will include extra storage facilities to be built between the eight silos and two square bins to be attached.

To complete the facility, Adams Building Contractors will also build bucket elevator legs, 100-foot tall towers on top of the silos, receiving buildings for both rail cars and semi-trucks, dryers and the control room.

Dick said the $32 million facility should be operational by September and completely finished by October or November.

The facility will serve 110-car shuttle trains that will run back and forth from Liberty Grain to West Coast ports.

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