At Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative in Hinton, Virginia, a new wastewater treatment building is going up beside a plant that never stops running. A poultry operation at full production produces a steady flow of wastewater, and all of it has to be treated before it leaves the site. The facility supplements the cooperative's existing treatment system and adds capacity as the business grows, which lets the plant process more wastewater and take on more production. Blauch Brothers is installing the process piping that ties the whole system together, working alongside general contractor Lantz Construction.
What Process Piping Does
Plumbing in a home or office is fairly straightforward: water comes in, waste goes out. Process piping is a different kind of work. It carries fluid through a building as part of the operation itself, feeding the specialized equipment that treats the water. On this project, that means running pipe from the poultry operation into the new treatment building and connecting it to the equipment that cleans the water.
That equipment only works the way it was designed to if it is piped a specific way. Pipe sizing, routing, and connections all have to line up, because the treatment process depends on every piece of the system doing its part.
Working Around a Plant That Can't Stop
The real challenge on this project comes down to timing. The plant runs on a set production schedule, and every hour of downtime means lost product and wasted labor hours.
Before our crews can tie the new facility into the existing system, certain lines have to be shut down. So we plan each tie-in with the plant ahead of time and do the work inside the windows they give us, which keeps the disruption to their operation as small as it can be.
The same thinking applies across the site. Our crews coordinate with the other contractors on the job so the trades do not get in each other's way, and so the facility is offline for as short a time as possible.
What Comes Next
As the slabs are poured, our team moves into the above-ground rough-in work, and later in the year we start the HVAC heating that keeps the new building from freezing over the winter. Each phase depends on the same thing: a schedule that keeps the plant running while the work gets done.
Why This Project Matters to Us
Lantz Construction brought Blauch Brothers onto this project because they trust the work our team does. They know we have the manpower and the knowledge to get this facility up and running and to deliver a quality product to the customer.
It is also good to see a locally owned business keep growing. A facility like this one will serve this community for a long time.
Since 1954, Blauch Brothers has helped commercial and industrial clients across the Shenandoah Valley complete complex HVAC, plumbing, and piping projects with confidence. If you are planning a facility that has to stay running while it is built, reach out to our team and we will help you plan the work around your operation.
