Riverbend Meat Processing Plant
Idaho Falls, Utah
Better manufacturing
Presented by: Big-D construction
Region: ENR Mountain States
Owner: Riverbend Management
Main design company: Babcock Design Group
General contractor: Big-D construction
Processing Designer: EA Bonelli & Associates Inc.
Civil engineer: Connect Engineering
Structural engineer: Dunn Associates Inc.
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: Angus-Young
Refrigeration consultant: Innovative cooling systems
Mechanical Contractor: Mechanical MRI
Electrical contractor: Interstate construction services
This initial facility will process Angus beef from harvest to finished packaged product. The plant’s state-of-the-art design and its 600-acre site allows cows to live and graze on the land, reducing emissions from truck traffic and contributing to the facility’s focus on a humane and sustainable approach to beef processing. Digging on top of a more than 4,000-year-old basalt lava field required a well-planned effort, as crews drilled 5,876 holes and used about 44,000 pounds of explosives to remove basalt material To minimize the facility’s environmental impact, a 5.1 million gallon indoor anaerobic lagoon captures and pretreats animal waste, a small wastewater treatment building finishes the process, and a biogas and reuse building in situ transforms processed waste into solid fuel to heat the building. This renewable energy source of biogas supplies around 10% of the plant’s total steam demand. The treated effluent is delivered to a 20 million gallon storage pond where it is reused for agricultural irrigation. The nutrients in the effluent reduce the amount of supplemental fertilizer used in field crops. Forrest McNabb, president of food and beverage at Big-D Construction, says that while biogas is expensive, it’s a good long-term investment. “It’s the right thing to do in today’s world when it comes to sustainability,” he adds.
The plant includes seven different temperature zones and large manufacturing areas.
Photo courtesy of Big-D Construction
