Spiritwood Township Energy Park Plan

Challenge

The Spiritwood Energy Park Association (SEPA) project needed an expedited project plan and a proactive approach to stakeholder engagement.

SEPA has two partners — Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corporation and Great River Energy — and serves Dakota Spirit AgEnergy with 65 million-gallon-per-year ethanol biorefinery. AgEnergy is located next to Great River Energy’s Spiritwood Station heat and power plant.

Solution

Bartlett & West took the SEPA project from a conceptual layout to complete engineering design in approximately five weeks. SEPA also had their needs represented in discussions and coordination with BNSF, the Class 1 railroad for which the energy park is connected. The Bartlett & West team coordinated with the grading contractor, built 3D surfaces for use with the contractor’s machine control and coordinated with the ethanol plant’s engineer and contractor to ensure matching design.

Bartlett & West provided design, survey and construction administration services and incorporated substantial modifications to the design criteria during the pre-construction phase to accommodate future track needs. This included design and construction of an extra wide rail bed to allow for additional siding track as new tenants are added to the industrial park.

Value

This site now includes 40,000 linear feet of track, 16 switches, more than 200,000 yards of material moved and the current capacity to land two unit trains. This allows the plant to annually produce 198,000 tons of dried, distilled grains and nearly 7,000 tons of fuel-grade corn oil.