By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

EUREKA, Ill. — A year after a July 30 explosion destroyed or damaged silos and other structures at Grainland Cooperative outside Eureka (Woodford County), workers were putting the final touches on a major rebuilding effort that co-op officials promise will restore the facility to near-full capacity before harvest.

“We will definitely be open and ready by harvest,” General Manager Jeff Brooks said last week.

Initial cleanup efforts after the 2018 blast, which occurred before co-op personnel had arrived for work that morning, were focused on stabilizing the damaged and remaining structures before any cleanup work could be done. Concrete had to come down, machinery had to be removed from the top of silos, and damaged grain dryers had to be extracted from the wreckage.

The facility’s concrete silo house sustained the most severe damage and was taken down completely, and two grain dryers were determined to be totaled. A salvage crew was brought in to remove grain from the structure after it was stripped of loose debris and damaged machinery.

More than 350,000 bushels of grain capacity were lost as an initial result of the damage. No official cause for the explosion and subsequent fire – which was caught on video by a neighboring business’ security camera and widely replayed across the internet – was ever determined.

“The main concrete house was the first to come down. As we made plans, we decided to go to more of a greenfield site and put in new dump pits and (other) updates. We looked at the condition of the concrete annex and decided to take it down. We also decided to take down (several) tanks that would have been due for replacement soon,” Brooks said.

“Basically, we cleaned up pretty much the whole area from the concrete annex to the north, with the only things remaining being two tanks built in 1975 and 1976 that were part of the original complex. We began all of this before harvest had even wrapped up last year.”

The rebuilding effort took several months and involved skilled laborers and contractors from across central Illinois. Growmark served as primary contractor for the project, with local businesses such as Paul’s Machine and Welding, Craig’s Concrete, and PJ Dillon subcontracting for millwright services, concrete, and other work.

Anywhere from 50-100 workers could be seen on-site during the busiest construction days, Brooks estimated. He declined to release a monetary estimate for the entire project at press time.

“It wasn’t cheap,” he allowed, with a laugh. “We are scheduled to be able to receive grain by September 1; I think we are still on target. It won’t be complete, but we’ll be able to dump grain at that point while (laborers) finish up a few things.”

Among the upgrades to the facility, dumping capacity at the elevator has been increased, with three receiving lanes built to handle 20,000 bushels per hour. The elevator has also increased its dumping capacity for unit trains to 60,000 per hour. Brooks said he was pleased with the result of what he called a “major overall rebuild” of Grainland’s Eureka facility.

“The Lord blessed us that we didn’t have any injuries during construction, and now He’s made the crop come in a little later for us, so we should be ready to take it on,” he said.

In addition to the Eureka location at 927 County Highway 3, Grainland elevators are located in El Paso, Secor, Minier, Emden, and Armington in central Illinois.