Louis Dreyfus Commodities Grain Elevator Dock

The state-of-the-art oilseed and grain elevator and dock located in the Port of Baton Rouge makes Port Allen, Louisiana the flagship export facility for the North American export program. The $150 million rehabilitation and expansion is able to load or unload 24 barges per day or load 100,000 bu./hr.

They chose hot-dip galvanizing (HDG) for corrosion protection because of the durability and cost-effectiveness both initially and for years to come.

They chose hot-dip galvanizing (HDG) for corrosion protection because of the durability and cost effectiveness both initially and for years to come. When harvest season comes there is no room for downtime, especially due to corrosion. Louis Dreyfus Commodities is certainly no stranger to the benefits of HDG since their projects have been long time users and previous Excellence Awards entries such as a Bio-diesel plant in Nebraska. The hot, humid, and salty environment along the Mississippi provides a corrosive environment for the upland portion of the facility while the dock loading portion are also subjected to moving muddy water, thus only HDG could provide the protection needed for decades. Grain handling is very abrasive and requires the durability offered by HDG to maximize the life-expectancy of the facility. The conveyors are very high and carry product a long distance making maintaining the structure difficult, so the decision to galvanize solved the problem.