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Award-winning operation evolves to meet customer, community needs
Imagine having to return a rental car to an unfamiliar airport without signs directing you where to go. You might eventually stumble into the rental car return area, but you’d likely be driving around aimlessly searching for your destination. Critical minutes will pass by, and the rest of your day could be altered because you weren’t able to efficiently return the car. Fortunately, practically every airport in the United States is designed with signs that simplify rental car return. But what about aggregate-producing sites? Finding a destination in a quarry can be equally challenging, especially to those visiting for the first time. Truck drivers who need to pick up a load of sand or stone can find themselves in this dilemma. If drivers don’t know where a particular pile is, one wrong turn can get them lost – or, worse, put them somewhere that jeopardizes their safety. The employees at a Cemex quarry noticed this issue a few years back. Truck drivers frequently got lost when visiting Cemex’s Krome Quarry, located… Keep Reading
KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens names sales, marketing VP
KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens promoted Ron Earl to vice president of sales and marketing. In his new position, Earl is responsible for leading the KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens sales and marketing departments to achieve their growth objectives for both equipment and parts sales. Earl has been a company employee for more than 16 years. He served as sales director for KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens from 2008 to 2015, and he served as vice president of sales and marketing of Astec Mobile Screens from 2000 to 2008. Earl began his career with the company as a salesman in 1999. “We are very pleased to promote Ron Earl to vice president of sales and marketing after many successful years serving the company in both sales and marketing roles,” says Jeff Elliott, group vice president of Astec Aggregate Mining Group. “Through Ron’s leadership, he has led his team to significant sales growth and created a stronger distribution network. We are confident in his ability to achieve our growth objectives with increased… Keep Reading
Vulcan’s James retiring at year’s end
Vulcan Materials Co. announced that Don James will retire as the company's non-executive chairman and from the board of directors, effective at the end of 2015. Tom Hill, Vulcan's president and CEO, will succeed James as chairman. "Don has led Vulcan Materials as the largest aggregates supplier in the U.S. for 18 years, significantly expanding its operations throughout the nation," says James T. Prokopanko, Vulcan's lead director. "During that time, he has guided Vulcan through periods of strong growth as well as difficult market downturns, always with a keen eye on customer service, creating opportunities for employees and building sustainable, long-term value for shareholders. "In particular, the actions taken by Don and the management team in recent years to increase operational efficiency, de-risk the balance sheet and maintain disciplined growth, have positioned Vulcan to deliver increasingly stronger returns." James, 66, served as Vulcan's president from 1996 to 1997 and as CEO from 1997 to 2014. He has served on the company's board of directors since 1996 and was named chairman in… Keep Reading
Obama signs 5-year, $305B highway bill into law
President Obama signed the five-year, $305 billion highway bill Friday that Congress passed one day earlier. The bill, called the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, represents the first long-term national transportation spending package since SAFETEA-LU expired in 2009. "This bill is not perfect, but it is a commonsense compromise, and an important first step in the right direction," says Obama, in a statement. The bill received tremendous support from both chambers of Congress. The Senate approved the FAST Act with an 83-16 vote. The House approved it with a 359-65 tally. Congress faced a Friday deadline to get a deal done to assure federal infrastructure funding goes uninterrupted. According to The Hill, the FAST Act spans 1,300 pages. Gas tax revenue and a $70 billion package in offsets from the federal budget supply the majority of the funds – about $205 billion for highways and another $48 billion for transit projects. The bill also reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank’s expired charter until 2019. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)… Keep Reading
Industry quickly reacts to the FAST Act
Passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act naturally drew a mostly positive response from industry stakeholders. Here's how a few people with surface transportation infrastructure interests reacted to the multi-year highway bill. Mike Johnson, NSSGA: “This critical bill gives state and federal governments the funding certainty essential for informed infrastructure investment. Our industry is ready to get to work and help improve the condition, efficiency and safety of America’s roads, highways and bridges. We commend members of Congress for seeing the value of a robust infrastructure to foster economic growth, maintain our global competitiveness and improve the quality of life for Americans.” Dennis Slater, Association of Equipment Manufacturers: "The FAST Act will offer five years of stability to our nation's surface transportation programs while steadily increasing infrastructure investment. This certainty extends to both the equipment manufacturing industry and the entire economy. The FAST Act means faster and safer infrastructure, economic growth and more prosperity." Pete Ruane, American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA): “The good news is that… Keep Reading
Legal notebook: Avoid assumptions, keep records
Don't presume, assume or anticipate anything without first planning or analyzing data. That's one of the messages Jeff Friedman, an attorney at Friedman, Dazzio, Zulanas & Bowling, P.C., offered aggregate producers during an educational session at the 2015 Quarry Academy hosted by Dyno Nobel and Sandvik in San Antonio. "Generally, it's dangerous if you fail to appreciate non-safe situations," says Friedman, whose firm is based in Birmingham, Ala. "That's where presumption comes in. In aggregates, it's never acceptable to play with odds, underestimate or take shortcuts with scenarios." Liability hides in plain sight, Friedman adds. When producers buy a crusher, for example, they also naturally must have a system to keep dust levels related to that crusher down. "If not, you could face a liability lawsuit," Friedman says. A similar dynamic pairs blasting and seismographs. Seismographs might help protect producers against blasting lawsuits, he says. But who bears responsibility for hiring a company that offers seismograph services? Is it the aggregate producer or the blasting company? "I would argue the… Keep Reading
MSHA’s Main weighs in on examination guidance, ‘Rules To Live By’
Pit & Quarry had the opportunity to ask Joe Main, assistant secretary of labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), about the agency's latest preparatory mine emergency efforts and the status of proposed amendments to the civil penalty regulation. Main also weighed in on other mine safety- and health-related areas during our recent interview: On MSHA's other top objectives: "We have had town hall discussions in the Southeast in a number of mining sectors. We've done these on a number of things, from fall protection to using an OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standard as meeting compliance. Also, we've discussed a ladder safety program we launched a little over a year ago to help provide guidance, as well as hazard communication. [We're examining] what else is out there, like a guarding issue that we can do better." On examination guidance: "We just had a good discussion with the Southeast mining industry because there's confusion about what we're doing. We need to have people doing constant examinations. We… Keep Reading
New construction starts climb 13 percent
New construction starts in October advanced 13 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $591.1 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. The increase follows the lackluster performance for construction starts during August and September, when activity fell to the lowest levels reported so far in 2015, according to the firm. Much of October’s gain for total construction was due to a sharp rebound by nonresidential building, with additional support coming from a moderate upturn for housing as the result of further strengthening by multifamily housing. At the same time, the nonbuilding construction sector settled back in October, reflecting a decreased amount of power plant projects. During the first 10 months of 2015, total construction starts on an unadjusted basis were $551.9 billion, up 10 percent from the same period a year ago. Leaving out the volatile electric utility and gas plant category, which was boosted in early 2015 by the start of several massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, total construction starts during the first 10 months of 2015 would be… Keep Reading
One tough crush: Sergeant Stone’s journey
John Powell knew a challenge loomed when he first encountered the material Sergeant Stone planned to crush at a startup site in Corning, Ohio. The material, which Powell perceived to be limestone, was as hard as any he had seen within Ohio during his 19 years with Eagle Crusher Co. In fact, after Powell sent initial samples to Bowser-Morner, a testing firm within the state, one came back with a compressive strength of 49,360 psi. That’s abnormally high for limestone. A second Bowser-Morner test was later conducted, revealing a Mohs hardness of 5. Most limestone has a hardness of about 3, so Sergeant Stone’s material technically has more characteristics of siltstone than it does limestone. “This stone is a lot like the stuff that’s up in the Northeast,” Powell says. “That is extremely hard rock up there. That stone gets so hard that you will struggle to impact crush it. You will go broke trying.” Jaw crushers are often preferable when stone gets to a certain hardness, Powell adds,… Keep Reading
