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Kansas Wheat Innovation Center Construction Diary

Dec. 29, 2011: The latest site construction meeting was held this morning. The majority of work right now is focused on pouring the foundation walls in preparation for the pre-cast concrete wall sections scheduled to be installed in February.

Waterproofing of the foundation walls is to take place next week.

At right: poured foundation walls of office section.

Speaking of water, the water line to the site is now in place under Kimball Avenue. Installation of the water service lines to the Center and to the Crop Improvement building next door is scheduled to happen next week also.

The job site is muddy and construction is sensitive to weather conditions right now, but the weather forecast looks dry for the next 14 days. This should allow most of the underground plumbing, electrical and foundation work to proceed on schedule. The next construction meeting will be Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10 a.m.

- Aaron Harries, marketing director aharries@kswheat.com

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Dec. 22, 2011: This will be a brief update. The construction meeting was held last Thursday. Earlier this week, prior to the storm, foundation walls were being poured. A lot of underground work is being completed – sanitary sewers, boring for water line, etc. Underground plumbing and conduit work is beginning. The next meeting will be next Thursday, December 29 at 10:00 a.m.

Looking West at the elevator shaft. The Kansas Crop Improvement Association office is in the background.

Looking NW at the footings for the office section.

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Dec. 1, 2011: It’s a cold and windy day at the KWIC construction site in Manhattan, but good progress is being made. Foundation work has progressed rapidly this week. Most of the concrete you see in the attached photos was poured that last 2 days. We are expecting anywhere from 1-3 inches of rain here in Manhattan on Saturday but this shouldn’t delay work much as the last 3-inch rain a few weeks back soaked in like a sponge.

At right, a view of the footings looking north.

This will be the east wall of the laboratory wing.

Foundation walls are to begin being poured next week. Crews are waiting on delivery of “embeds.” These steel plates are embedded on top of the walls and the pre-cast concrete walls will be attached to these when they are installed. It will be quite a sight when they start putting up the pre-cast concrete walls. They are being made in Newton and trucked in – one per flatbed. The sections are 6 inches thick and some will be 18 feet tall. They will ride on springs on the flatbed, so they don’t crack during travel. We may have to find room to park as many as 20 trailers on site with the pre-cast sections on board. Precast erection is scheduled to begin in late January.

Electrical and mechanical is by far the most complex part of this project. Behind the scenes we are working with our greenhouse provider (Stuppy) and our electrical and plumbing sub-contractors to analyze and configure air conditioning for the greenhouses. Incorporating the growth rooms in the building also requires very detailed information down the location of each floor drain. Fortunately, we have a very impressive crew of subcontractors working for us.

At left, the footings between the lab and office section. The square in the bottom right-hand of the photo is the footing for the elevator shaft. The bare square in the middle of the shaft is for the elevator sump pump. You can see the pad for the greenhouses where the white truck is parked in the upper right-hand corner.

Much of the next few weeks will be spent finishing footings, pouring walls, installing foundation conduits for electrical and plumbing. We are still on schedule for a move-in next December.

Other activity this week:

Staff met with the architect to start discussing interior finishes such as carpet, paint colors, tile, counter surfaces, etc.
Staff met with a furniture company to begin the process of determining office furniture needs.

- Aaron Harries, marketing director, aharries@kswheat.com

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Nov. 21, 2011: Work continues to progress on the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center.Site cut and fill work is underway.Prep work for the footings has begun this week. Next week, crewswill likely begin pouring some concrete.Everything is on schedule. - Aaron Harries

At left, the view looking south, towards Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Kansas Wheat Commission Breaks Ground on Kansas Wheat Innovation Center

Kansas Wheat Commissioners breaking ground on the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan on July 12 include: Ron Suppes, Brian Linin, Jason Ochs, Mike McClellan, Rich Randall, Doug Keesling, Dave Radenberg, Scott Van Allen and Jay Armstrong.

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Kansas Wheat Commission board members broke ground on Tuesday, July 12 for the new Kansas Wheat Innovation Center (KWIC), a state-of-the-art wheat research/office complex being built on the north campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan.

The Kansas Wheat Commission is funding the 40,000 square-foot structure, which includes 15,000 square feet of advanced wheat breeding laboratories, a 10,000 square-foot greenhouse complex and 15,000 square feet of office space. The center will house Heartland Plant Innovations (HPI), a Kansas Wheat initiative focused on developing new technologies for Kansas Wheat Farmers. The staff of the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers also will be headquartered at the KWIC.

“One of the most notable tenants will be HPI’s Advanced Breeding Services Unit, which has developed a doubled haploid laboratory that can reduce wheat variety development time from approximately 12 years to potentially five years. This laboratory puts new varieties in the hands of growers faster,” said Justin Gilpin CEO of Kansas Wheat.

The research facility will also house some of the operations of K-State’s world-renowned Wheat Genetics and Genomics Resource Center (WGGRC).

The KWIC is being built on three acres adjacent to the Grain Science and Industry Complex north of Kimball Avenue in Manhattan, on land being leased from Kansas State University. The Manhattan-based architect firm Bowman, Bowman and Novick, Inc., designed the facility; Coonrod and Associates, Wichita, is the project’s construction manager. It is expected to be completed by summer of 2012.

The cost of the KWIC project is $8.3 million and will be funded mostly by wheat check-off funds collected from Kansas wheat producers. Additional sources of funding include grant money from the Kansas Bioscience Authority and private fundraising.

“Farmers repeatedly voice support for investing more check-off dollars in wheat research,” said Richard Randall, KWC Chairman from Scott City. “This project represents the largest single research investment that wheat farmers have ever made in the U.S., and signals a bold step taken by the Kansas Wheat Commission to provide farmers access to advanced genetics and trait discovery.”

David Schemm, president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers from Sharon Springs, says the state’s KAWG fully supports the KWIC. “One of our national strategic initiatives is to increase wheat yields 20% by 2018. This Innovation Center will help us achieve that goal,” Schemm says.

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For more information, contact:

Justin Gilpin, CEO, Kansas Wheat Commission / Kansas Assn. of Wheat Growers

217 Southwind Place

Manhattan, KS 66502

jgilpin@kswheat.com

phone: 785-539-0255