Milestones in Sugar Refinery Rebuild

The rebuilding of Imperial Sugar’s Savannah Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, began in the fall of 2008. By any measure, it’s proved to be an extraordinary feat – completed in about a year, with almost 200 miles of electrical wiring and conduits installed. With the $200+ million reconstruction nearly done, the facility will begin operating at full capacity this fall, supplying about 60 percent of Imperial Sugar’s production. Here are the milestones in the refinery rebuild:

October 2008

Demolition Complete

• Worked closely with OSHA, CSB , insurance companies and others as site is finally cleared.
• Much of the steel from damaged buildings is recycled.
• Crushed concrete from original structures used as base for new refinery foundations.

Granulator Installed

• The 88,000-pound “heart” of the refinery is put in place.
• New granulator used to dry and cool sugar replaces 10 non-salvageable units.

November 2008

Silo Groundbreaking

• Ground work begins to erect three silos in an interlocking, clover-leaf design.
• 77 caisson pilings – each measuring 3 feet in diameter and 75 feet deep – were poured to support the silos.
• 5-foot- thick concrete base has been poured – using 1,630 cubic yards of concrete and 100 tons of reinforcing steel.

Packaging House Groundbreaking

• Ground work started for this state-of-the-art facility, measuring 166,118 square feet.
• Nearly 730 tons of structural steel will be installed.
• Finished building will measure nearly the length of two football fields.

May 2009

Silo Pour Complete

• Three interlocking silos, each 50 feet in diameter, rise 156 feet above the refinery.
• 3,670 cubic yards of concrete and 322 tons of steel create the massive structure.
• Each silo can hold 32 railroad cars of sugar – or 6.5 million pounds.

June 2009

First Packaging Machines Installed

• First packaging machines are put in – with well-known names like Fawemas, Theile, Bosch and Hayssen.
• The last of these machines will be installed in October.

Commissioning of Station “F” and Bulk Sugar Production

• Represents the best in fully automated, computer-controlled sugar refining and bulk production.
• Seven-story refinery has the capacity to handle 7.2 million pounds of granulated sugar a day.
• Bulk Station has six storage bins, each one measuring 14 feet in diameter and 40 feet high. The station has total storage capacity of 1.75 million pounds.
  • It has two truck loading systems – plus two railcar-scale systems to load 200,000 pounds of sugar an hour.
  • Its 18 dustless loading spouts, used to feed both rail and truck systems, is a state-of-the-art containment measure.

August 2009

Silo Commissioning

• Silos to be fully online and operational, displaying the Imperial Sugar logo.

September 2009

Packaging House Commissioning

• Packaging of granulated, brown and powdered sugars will ramp up just in time for the upcoming holiday season – the busiest time for Imperial Sugar’s industrial, foodservice and retail customers.