Ken Foods
Ken Foods is opening a 365,000-square foot manufacturing facility, where it will produce dressings, sauces, and marinades. The new development will bring 150 new jobs to Boone County. Duke Realty was selected to take on this project and they have partnered with our Indianapolis BURG to perform the total package concrete scope of work which will involve the installation of reinforced floors with PD3 baskets and shake on hardener, high tolerance sloped to trench drain floors with acid brick coverings, robotic equipment pads, heavily reinforced foundations, over half a mile of interior IMP protection curbs, composite slab on metal deck, heavily reinforced Silo Tank Farm and Equalization Tank slabs and sitework.
Logistically, there are going to be challenges when it comes time to place the interior slabs. Due to the location of the overhead door opening, sufficient access would not be available to sequence the floor slabs. Our team recognized this in our upfront planning meetings and recreated an access point by redesigning the precast panel and adding a foundation stem wall to facilitate access at the south end of the building. This not only opened the appropriate access to facilitate our concrete scope, but helped provide adequate work access for all the other trades.
Manufacturing facilities like Ken Food’s typically require high abrasive resistance floors to handle the amount of fork lift traffic and equipment used during day to day operations. The specific design for this building includes Emery Shake Hardener, a high-end product that requires attention to detail and due diligence to ensure correct application. This will take research, thorough review of the mix design for compatibility, and utilizing a Somero Spreader during the application process.
Acid brick will be installed on the kitchen and filling room floors to eliminate the possibility of corrosion and protect the concrete substrate. Acid brick is easy to clean and makes it easier for the facility maintenance team to remove the potential of food borne bacteria during the cleaning and sanitizing process. The installation of acid brick requires stringent standards, including floor flatness tolerances that are less than one eighth of an inch over 10 feet. There will be a railroad spur inside the building with a large utility trench throughout and a stainless-steel liner. Stringent tolerances and tight elevation will need to be maintained to ensure correct spacing from the acid brick to the railroad ties.
Using our thorough daily plan process, we identified we would need to build safety access bridges, numerous hand rails, and establish barriers around deep excavations. The foundations were very deep and the land had a very high-water table, which created a moat around the building perimeter. The safety access bridges allowed all trades to cross into work zones safety. This was recognized by our customer, Duke Realty and we played a major role in helping their project team achieve the Safety Contractor of the Month Award. To show their appreciation for our efforts and attention to detail with safety considerations for the project, the Executive Vice President of Construction for Duke Realty sent a letter expressing their gratitude. Our site supervision has been proactive in reviewing site conditions and coming up with effective solutions to deal with site access and barricade concerns, which has allowed workers from all different trades and disciplines to safely return home to their family’s injury free daily.
