Kinder Morgan Expands Its Storage With A New Dome Barrel Structure

Posted by Matt Hopkins|July 1, 2015

Kinder Morgan wanted additional covered storage at its Dakota Bulk Terminal on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, MN. With help from the folks at Dome Corp., that’s exactly what they got.

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The new dome barrel structure at Kinder Morgan's Dakota Bulk Terminal in St. Paul, MN, was built by Dome Corp. The structure’s proximity to the Mississippi River meant certain precautions had to be carefully considered during the planning phase.
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Crews installing wood barrel panels. Building completely clear span. No center support columns needed.
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Covered blending alleyway.
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Elevated control room allows visual access to all activities.
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The loadout structure was integrated with the barrel dome to keep loading/blending operations covered from weather and contamination into the environment.
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Safe stair access to interior catwalks allow for easy maintenance.

What They Needed

The client was looking for 20,000 tons total storage, and the four products varied in quantities from 2,000-6,000 tons depending on product. The challenge was getting the quantities they needed into a very small available area. In addition they needed to have enough room to allow for adequate and efficient traffic flow. Due to the proximity to the Mississippi River and a community walking trail, special provisions would be needed to accommodate the cities beautification ordinance.

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Other major facilities on-site include two 20,000 BPH grain loading facilities, 30,000 tons bulk warehouse storage, 500,000 tons of outdoor storage, six barge docks on the river and pellet mill processing facilities.

What We Designed

We designed a dome barrel structure with 16-foot high concrete side walls and 40-foot high interior divider walls. The dome ends allowed for better traffic flow, while also decreasing the overall length which helped fit the available space. The high interior divider walls allowed the product to be piled high enough to also reduce the building footprint and save loader run time. Concrete form liners were used to give the wall a finished brick look. The roofing material used was a PVC membrane product with raised panels to break up the roof line to meet local building codes. The loadout structure was integrated with the barrel dome to keep loading/blending operations covered from weather and contamination into the environment.