Pressure to expand has caused a late winter flurry of building and renovation of grain elevators across the Prairies.
Rail-line abandonment, competition from farmer-owned inland terminals and price incentives from railway companies to terminals that can load trains rapidly and fill a large number of rail cars at one stop are cited as causes for the building boom.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s Weyburn concrete elevator will be getting a $6 million upgrade in three phases.
The first, to be completed by August 1998, includes a 22,000 tonne storage annex that will provide 15,000 tonnes of grain space available to producers through lease agreements.
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The upgrade also calls for rail car spot increases from 39 to 112 cars with five-car simultaneous loading. As well, equipment capable of cleaning 120 tonnes per hour and drying equipment to handle 50 tonnes per hour will be installed.
The site will become home of a mobile-load elevator system.
The second and third stages are expected to centralize the farm supply services from a downtown location to the elevator and an additional $2.4 million improvement to the grain handling systems of the elevator and further storage expansion.
In the same region of Saskatchewan, pool elevators at Midale and Torquay will get more car spots and second track loading capabilities.
About 175 kilometres east of Weyburn, United Grain Growers plans to expand its Redvers, Sask., elevator to 200,000 tonnes per year at a cost of $2.9 million.
In Manitoba UGG also plans to invest $800,000 at the company’s Dutton Siding facility.
UGG intends to spend $1.85 million on an expansion of the Killam, Alta., elevator.
Growth in the northern grain belt is planned as Sask Pool expands its elevator at Melfort, Sask., at a cost of $6 million.
The changes include a 100-car spot, three-track loading, export quality cleaning and better drying capacities.
