Columbia River Processing, Inc. Cheese Processing Facility Project

Columbia River Processing, Inc. Cheese Processing Facility Project

Upon completion of the ASRS addition at their Tillamook, Oregon facility, the Tillamook County Creamery Association embarked on a new project—a satellite cheese plant in Boardman, Oregon, called Columbia River Processing, Inc.

This 83,500 square feet facility was constructed on 22 acres of land at the Port of Morrow, OR and is capable of producing 58 million pounds of cheese per year. The cheese will remain in storage at the Boardman site for less than 30 days before being shipped to Tillamook to complete the aging process in the ASRS.

CEI responsibilities in this project included Process Engineering & Refrigeration Project Management.

Columbia River Processing, Inc. Cheese Processing Facility

Click photo for larger view

Design features at this new facility include:

Milk receiving facility
Cheese manufacturing facility
2,100 pallet position cold storage room
6,600 square foot dry storage room
Two truck receiving bays, one truck loading bay
Refrigeration system
Electrical distribution system
Steam distribution system
Compressed air distribution system
Natural gas distribution system
Plant communications systems
Solid waste handling system
Maintenance shop
Plant office with associated computer and communications systems
Quality Assurance laboratory and large pieces of equipment

Production of cheese began in September, 2001 with the expectation that throughput would ramp up slowly and supplement production from the Tillamook
facility as the quality came up to speed. Instead, Columbia River Processing began making high quality product within the first 3 months of operation and
won a national award for cheese quality in the first 6 months.