Trends Winter 2012 | Page 9

Product moves in and out of the warehouse quickly. Each day, 18 to 20 semitrailers back up to the loading docks to be filled with cases of beans – up to 20,000 cans per semi. Each of the 19 loading docks is designed to allow the truck to be fully in place before the dock door is opened. The warehouse stays sealed, keeping temperatures even and maintaining product security. The site work also involved designing roadways and parking to accommodate semis delivering raw materials and taking away finished products. “We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from our shipping group,” Tolan said. “Even though the trailers sit a bit farther away, it’s just as efficient because of the layout and free flow of traffic. The new layout allows our shipping and distribution group a much better view of the whole trucking area, of trucks coming in and going out.” But trucks are only part of the shipping solution. Shipping by rail to distribution warehouses is a major cost savings for Bush Brothers, with each rail car capable of hauling 80,000 cans of beans – up to four times as much as a single semi. A key component of the project was bringing a rail spur inside the warehouse. Before completing the project, only two rail cars could be loaded at a time. Bush Brothers now can load eight cars at a time, all inside the warehouse. The company can fill up to 16 rail cars each week. Coordinating the rail spur construction with the railroad was one of the most demanding parts of the schedule; at times the rail project schedule was in four-hour increments, Adams said. “It was an aggressive schedule for design and the timing of the rail dock. But the biggest challenge was construction – it was a very tough winter,” Berg said. That might be an understatement. Summer and fall 2010 were wet, including a 5-inch rainfall in 24 hours during the early stages of site work. Preparing the pad for the warehouse required significant excavation and structural fill material to match the finish floor elevation, Adams said; 70,000 cubic yards of sand (mined on site) were needed for the base, and 60,000 cubic yards of “spoils” were regraded on site. Then, just as construction was getting under way, a blizzard dumped 22 inches of snow. An early frost followed by a very cold winter TRENDS │9