Washington Beef Expansion/Construction

About This Project

This new 75,000 sq. ft. beef processing facility and 10,000 sq. ft. corporate headquarters is composed of site-cast concrete tilt up panels. The main production area for beef fabrication is lined with 4″ insulated liner panels, creating a sanitary, washable cooler box. The ceiling in the fabrication area is 5″ double skinned insulated liner panel suspended from the structure above, creating a 10′ interstitial space for all mechanical, electrical and refrigeration utilities.

A 400′ cooling tunnel connects the new production area to the existing slaughter facility. This refrigerated area is insulated within the concrete panels using the “thermo-mass” or “sandwich” panel system.

All production area floors are polyester coated and sloped to precast polyester trench drains or 1100r drains for easy clean-up. Both ammonia and glycol refrigeration systems are used within the building – ammonia in areas of low occupancy such as the cooling tunnel and shipping/palletizing areas, glycol in the main production area due to high occupancy levels. Daily washdown and sterilization requirements are facilitated by 140 – J 80-degree water systems supplied throughout the building.

New fabrication equipment was installed prior to plant startup, and existing equipment was moved from the existing Yakima facility to the new plant in a four-day shutdown. An extensive planning effort allowed Washington Beef to obtain USDA approval and to start up the plant on schedule at full production. This project was designed and built by Gracon subsidiary, Dahlgren Industrial.