Food Processing Facility, IA
RP Constructors builds state-of-the-art food processing facility for world’s second-largest pork producer
The Client
The client, an IA food processing facility, has an award-winning, $330 million campus that was designed from the ground up. The first of its kind new facility produces pork products for retail, international, food service, and further processing markets, an estimated 20 thousand hogs are processed per day.
What We Did
RP Constructors and CEC participated in a joint venture to help create the most advanced and second-largest pork facility globally. RP Constructors joined the team as the second contractor delivering design-build services for the 942,000 square foot site, back when the vision for the empty, snow-covered field was focused on the underground utilities, water mains, wastewater treatment, and sanitary sewer. Our partnership expanded to gas service, shoring, primary electrical services, and concrete. With a streamlined process and service above and beyond the initial scope, RP Constructors and CEC continue to provide maintenance and upgrades to the advanced systems to this day.
The client, an IA food processing facility, has an award-winning, $330 million campus that was designed from the ground up. The first of its kind new facility produces pork products for retail, international, food service, and further processing markets, an estimated 20 thousand hogs are processed per day.
Building a state-of-the-art facility from the ground up begins with the precision and expertise of the underground infrastructure. RP Constructors constructed underground utilities, water mains, wastewater systems, and sanitary sewer across the entire property—while we started with only construction, we eventually ended up doing design work too with CEC. The work didn't end there. The partnership has been on a continuous journey to explore new ways to use our expertise to increase the operation's efficiency.
In part due to our detailed knowledge of the facilities wastewater system, RP Constructors and CEC became a go-to partner providing a valued experience in moving the project forward. Using our engineering and design-build expertise, we continue to provide innovative and proven solutions efficiently. We knew how to recognize a problem, directly identify it on-site, because we helped construct it, and quickly offer solutions.
The excellent collaboration on this project set the foundation for the partnership to grow into gas services, shoring, and primary electrical service.
Once the facility was up and running, the facility experienced elevated hydrogen sulfide levels and once again called on us to put a solution in place. We worked with an outside vendor to add oxygen to sequester the H2S providing a better control system. As we continue to focus on upgrades and maintenance, RP Constructors and CEC have worked on wet well-pump improvements and various projects over the years. Completing the work without interrupting operations, quickly finding solutions, and mitigating future issues isn't a challenge, it's just what we do.
Services Provided
Underground utilities
Water main utilities
Wastewater system
Sanitary sewer
Storm sewer
Gas service
Shoring
Electrical including cased holes in concrete that protected the very complicated and dangerous electrical system.
Design and build additional systems and upgrades.
We know this company’s systems, and they trust our solutions. We worked with another engineering firm as well on this project to complete the work successfully.
As both engineers and contractors, we were able to self-perform much of the work, giving the client better timelines and pricing.
