Q: Over the past few months, I’ve watched as a vacant parcel of land on the east side of the Walmart distribution center has been transformed from an open field into a vast, level plot. I believe this area is set to become the second-largest distribution center in Walmart’s network.
My question is: how many loads of sand have been brought in to create what seems to be the foundation for this massive project? Every time I pass by, I see countless side-dumper trucks delivering sand, and I can’t help but wonder how many loads have been hauled in and where all this sand is coming from. Thank you!
A: It is definitely a massive earth-moving, land-raising operation underway in the northwest quadrant of the Highway 14-Blue Earth County Road 12 interchange. The grading permit application filed with the city of Mankato places the cost of the site preparation work alone at $37 million, not counting the upcoming construction of the facility itself.
But Ask Us Guy came up empty in his attempts to quantify the amount of fill being hauled to the location.
“Our construction team tells me the sand for the project was procured locally,” said Ashley Nolan, a corporate communications specialist in Walmart’s U.S. Supply Chain division. “As far as the exact amount, I’m still checking.”
With no further word from Nolan since Nov. 6, Ask Us Guy hoped maybe a local regulatory agency might be able to dish the dirt on the quantity and source of the earth being added to the distribution center site.
Not so, said Mankato Community Development Director Mark Konz. A couple of permits are required for the work underway at the site, but they don’t involve volume of material or its origin.
One is a state permit aimed at protecting water from pollution during the construction period — essentially governing runoff from the disturbed landscape into nearby streams and other water bodies.
“The city of Mankato issues a land disturbance permit, and we also issue a grading permit,” Konz said, adding that the permits deal with ensuring that materials are not tracked out onto roadways and that the fill is appropriately placed on the site for the construction of the facility being planned for the location.
So without a precise figure on the cubic yards of dirt being moved onto the site, there will be no opportunity for Ask Us Guy to do what he normally does with these types of questions: Invest/waste a bunch of time calculating how many times the civic center arena could be filled with that amount of dirt or how far into space the dirt would reach if it was piled in a one-foot-square column.
Although readers are undoubtedly saddened by not having that vital and fascinating information, Ask Us Guy offers a bit of consolation, courtesy of Walmart’s Nolan. A written summary of the planned expansion of the 425,000-square-foot Mankato facility, built in 2015, states that it will include “automated technology designed to increase capacity, keeping up with customer demand.”
The company produced a video providing an inside look at the operations of a Walmart distribution center like the one coming to Mankato, complete with an amazing array of mechanization and robotic technology that more than doubles the number of cases that can be processed per hour compared to traditional distribution centers. That video is attached to the online version of this column at mankatofreepress.com.
The company’s summary of the Mankato project included a comment by Taka Kuvaoga, general manager of what is known in Walmart world as “distribution center #7079.”
“The technology we are adding to our facility will be game-changing for both customers and our associates,” Kuvaoga said of the Mankato upgrade and expansion. “With this investment, we are laying the foundation for a stronger, more efficient supply chain and will continue to provide great careers to the city of Mankato and surrounding communities in the Minnesota Valley.”
The Mankato expansion is part of a broader grocery network transformation strategy detailed in a blog by Dave Guggina, executive vice president of Walmart’s Supply Chain division.
“We’re expanding four traditional perishable DCs by adding over 500,000 square feet of automation per site to increase capacity for fresh product,” Guggina wrote. “We will expand facilities in Mankato, Minnesota; Mebane, North Carolina; Garrett, Indiana; and Shelbyville, Tennessee.”
In addition, the company has built or is building five brand new high-tech perishable distribution centers in Shafter, California; Lancaster, Texas; Wellford, South Carolina; Belvidere, Illinois; and Pilesgrove, New Jersey.
Although the company didn’t provide specific data on how the changes will impact the size of the workforce in Mankato, it noted that the move to automation changes the nature of the work being done by humans.
“For example, associates that used to manually stack cases may work in a high-tech facility as an automation equipment operator and continue growing their career as an automation control center operator, automation technician or automation area manager. Plus, associates who have transitioned into these new roles tell us they are more enjoyable and satisfying, while also often resulting in higher base pay.”
That transition won’t be coming to Mankato in 2025, according to Nolan.
“… We are a couple of years out from completion,” she said.
Like the earthwork, the building construction is no small undertaking. The new facilities will total 600,000 square feet, bringing the entire complex to just over 1 million square feet, according to plans submitted to the city of Mankato last year.
Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com; put Ask Us in the subject line.
