Using Past Projects to Design Something New for Centrillium Protein
March 19, 2025
You might think that after more than 40 years in business we’ve seen every type of project there is. We have seen a lot, but a recent project in Midwest City, Oklahoma, had us working on a new type of project. In partnership with ESI Group USA (ESI Group) – we provided civil/site design and landscape architecture services for a 112,000-square-foot further processed meat plant for Centrillium Protein (Centrillium).
Drawing on Past Knowledge
Even though we have never designed this specific type of facility, we have plenty of experience to draw from.
“I think that on the civil side our expertise from designing manufacturing facilities in the past definitely helped,” says Doug Klassen, civil engineer and senior project manager for MKEC. “One of the things about this facility is they’re going to have somewhere around 50 trucks per day. Designing their site layout with truck movement, docks, and turning radii in mind was definitely something we brought to the table.”
The facility was designed to allow for significant future expansion, so being aware of future truck movements was important to avoid service interruptions as the future phase is constructed.
In addition, Centrillium plans to expand with future loading facilities for railroad cars.
“We were able to use our expertise from past projects to develop a plan to maximize the use of the proposed railroad spur based on the location of proposed loading facilities and rail car stacking. This helped the owner understand how to maximize capacity of the proposed railroad spur,” Klassen says.
Unique Design Aspects
The Centrillium facility did have a few unique qualities, but even when approaching those unique features we were able to use our combined knowledge of both the city and the design process to provide quality solutions for our client.
Both our civil and landscape architecture departments were involved in designing the site, which sat across the creek from Midwest City’s wastewater treatment plant. However, no sewer line had been run to the site and no opportunity existed to create a gravity line connecting to the wastewater treatment plant due to elevation constraints. MKEC coordinated the on-site sanitary sewer design with the city’s consultant who designed a new sewer lift station to make the connection to the existing plant.
In addition, Midwest City’s water service did not extend to the site. However, a water line owned by the City of Oklahoma City was already in place along one side of the property. Midwest City was working to build out their city water service to the Centrillium facility and the nearby neighborhoods, but Centrillium was going to need water before the city could finish the project.
We were able to work with Oklahoma City Utilities to develop a plan for Centrillium to temporarily connect to Oklahoma City’s water while we designed the water pipeline to also connect into Midwest City’s water when their extension project was finished.
“We allowed for a future connection when the Midwest City line was ready,” Klassen says. “It took a lot of special coordination between Midwest City’s design consultant and the City of Oklahoma City to accomplish this temporary connection.”
One other facet of the site design was the design and construction of a railroad spur by Midwest City.
“We coordinated with the city’s design consultant to make sure the spur is compatible with our design of the plant,” Klassen says. “We looked at future loading facilities, and we were able to use our expertise and skills in that area to maximize the use of the future spur for Centrillium.”
We also encountered something on the landscape design that we had never worked with before. U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations meant we couldn’t put any trees near the building.
“Because Centrillium will be a certified USDA plant dealing with food, they don’t want any birds in the building,” Klassen says. “We needed to meet those requirements along with conforming to Midwest City’s code. This led our landscape architects to take a different design approach.”
We had to keep trees away from the building and even used river rock in some of the median areas near the building to reduce maintenance and wildlife concerns.
Looking to the Future
As Centrillium looks to open its facility very soon, we’re on to new projects, but the expertise we gained and the relationships we built will serve us well into the future just as our experience with past projects helped us tackle the unique features of Centrillium’s design.