RIVIANA FOODS
MEMPHIS, TN

Tight schedule and poor soil conditions?
Linkous rose to the challenge.

The scope

This was a fast track design and construction project for Riviana Foods, a 421,344 SF food manufacturing plant and warehouse. The design and construction of the building shell was in progress while the architect concurrently designed the plant process.

This required detailed coordination between Linkous, the owner, and architect to accommodate the continuously evolving plant design. It also required Linkous to have an immense attention to detail in order to catch potential problems before they became issues. Both projects were under a tight construction schedule in order for the owner to meet their internal deadline.

Challenges & Resolutions

A major obstacle was the extensive, unsuitable soil condition at the building locations. Using a team approach, Linkous worked closely with the Structural and Geotechnical engineers to select the appropriate foundation solutions. After demolition of the existing warehouse and manufacturing buildings on the site, Linkous was able to stabilize the subgrade using a rammed aggregate pier system, which provided the necessary bearing capacity for the building foundations. This was accomplished without adversely impacting the project schedule.

Another challenge was the erection of 8” thick concrete tilt wall panels that weighed upward of 80,000 lbs. each. The Linkous team did extensive planning and coordination on the front end to ensure proper placement and erection of the walls to mitigate any issues. Linkous then coordinated limited access due to an active railroad spur and public road adjacent to the building without disruption to the public and the site. The majority of the panels also had to be erected from the building floor slab, which required increased floor slab thickness to handle the weight of the crane and erection process itself.

How the Client was protected

Linkous used an on-site management team to allow for continuous contact and coordination with the Riviana team. This team mentality, combined with weekly coordination, planning, and progress meetings, ensured that all parties were up-to-date, and on the same page throughout this fast track project. Linkous believes in working together to discuss, brainstorm, stick to the schedule, and resolve issues in order to protect the client’s needs, timeline, and budget.

Outcome

The Riviana team was extremely pleased with the project. The completion of this project signified the first of many projects for this client. Linkous’ timely completion allowed Riviana the sufficient time to install the plant process equipment, commission, and start up their systems. The plant processes and packages enough rice daily (approximately 2 million lbs.) to cover an entire football field a foot deep. It is believed to be one of the largest rice plants in the world.

Next Case Study