Tag: grain handling facility

27Jul 2015

Rehabilitating Soils to Increase the Bearing Capacity Under Milk Storage and Grain Handling Facilities

By Robert Armstead

Silos are storage systems designed to contain massive amounts of weight within a concentrated area and vary in size, ranging from 20-80 feet tall with diameters of 12-30 feet. Some storage facilities have more than one or two silos sitting in a small area.  When the silos are full, the significant weight can impact settlement of the foundation and/or the foundations of nearby structures.

In addition to the consolidated weight of tanks that hold liquid and grain storage bins, the surrounding processing facilities get a lot of traffic as well. There is a constant stream of trucks, mostly loaded with heavy cargo, coming and going from the facility. When there is a rail spur next to the facility, the soils underneath and around the grain bins, silos, and mission critical buildings are taxed with even more weight.  Consequently, there is a lot of weight consolidated into a relatively small area around these crucial, very busy facilities.

After heavy rainfall like…

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