Anderson Columbia’s Tejas Quarry in New Braunfels, Texas, has grown tremendously over the last nine years.
In 2016, Anderson Columbia opened up the site in the San Antonio market with a couple hundred-ton-per-hour portable plant. The Tejas Quarry’s hourly production today is roughly five times that, with company leaders late last year projecting the operation to finish the year as one of the larger by volume in the nation.
Even more growth is in the operation’s future, too, with expansion plans potentially doubling the Tejas Quarry’s output. One recent project that set up the Tejas Quarry for the coming years – and contributed to a spike in its 2024 output – was a Union Pacific rail line that was added to the site.
“It’s another stepping stone to get us more competitive in the market,” says Daniel Barrs, plant manager at the Tejas Quarry. “We are situated between the giants of the industry, and we’re starting to get a foothold in it.”
The new rail line connects the Tejas Quarry to an Anderson Columbia railyard in The Woodlands, Texas, giving the company better access to the Houston market. In addition, Anderson Columbia expects a company railyard in Mathis, Texas, to be completed in February, providing better access to the Corpus Christi market.
Conrad Johnson, operations manager at Anderson Columbia, says the rail line in New Braunfels was years in the making.
“We’ve been working on the rail project since before I started working in New Braunfels,” Johnson says. “I moved with Anderson Columbia from South Carolina to Texas, getting here a little over eight years ago. We started on the rail almost immediately at that point, and we’ve been working on it ever since.”
Strategic growth
Anderson Columbia hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Tejas Quarry in October to commemorate the rail line going online. The company loaded its first train at the site in September.
“We’re running all unit trains, and they are predominantly taking 57 stone and base,” Barrs says. “Each train has around 135 cars, and we can ship 15,000 tons per train.”
In 2025, Anderson Columbia anticipates shipping roughly one train per week. The company already shipped nine trainloads as of late November 2024.
One benefit of the loadout-by-rail option at the Tejas Quarry is Anderson Columbia can alleviate some truck traffic in New Braunfels. While some of the quarry’s materials are utilized at its on-site asphalt and ready-mixed concrete plants, Anderson Columbia serves outside customers as well.
“We take a little bit of pride in getting our truck drivers in and out,” Barrs says. “We have an overpass coming into the pit to keep things moving.”
As Anderson Columbia’s Tejas Quarry continues to expand, company leaders envision the site’s growth scaling evenly across rail and truck transport.
“We planned on growing, but I don’t know if we really planned on it growing as fast and as steadily as it has,” Johnson says. “We’ve been ahead of plan on our growth, and that’s been great to see. We’re excited for it.”
Barrs shares in Johnson’s enthusiasm for the Tejas Quarry’s future.
“All of us knew this was coming,” he says. “I’m not really sure how long it will last. It’s hard to say confidently that it’s slowing down, because I don’t see any end in sight.”
In Barrs’ view, a key to expanding the operation further will be in securing the right personnel.
“We can have brand-new equipment, but you need to have people involved in it. We’ve got a good team with us. We’ve had a tremendous amount of success with some of our mobile equipment and loaders. We’re trying to lean more on the automation side, cutting down on the handling. Right now, we’re doing the best we can with the tools we have.”
