A major construction boom is underway in central Ohio where the now $28 billion development of two Intel semiconductor manufacturing plants – the single-largest private sector investment in the history of the state – is continuing at pace.
An additional $90 million was committed by the Department of Transportation to improve and enhance infrastructure around the facility.
This is in addition to continued work on the development of a new lithium-ion EV battery plant in Jeffersonville, Ohio, as part of a $3.5 billion joint venture between LG Energy Solutions and Honda.
“Within a matter of hours of booting up the plant, material testing showed concrete sand output to be perfectly in-spec,” Duffy says.
The plant is producing a range of construction materials, including C33 coarse concrete sand, fine sand and three different aggregate fractions: 1 to 2 in., #57 stone and pea gravel.
“I was amazed,” Duff says. “The result was immediate. Right from the starting block we were producing great-looking stockpiles. The plant is making sure we have a constant supply of concrete sand for our six ready-mix plants.”
Adaptable
Since initial commissioning in June last year, the geology and material quality of the limestone deposit at the company’s operation in Huntsville has changed significantly. But Duff says the CDE plant has been able to easily adjust to the new conditions.
“We’ve been extracting here for almost 75 years now,” Duff says. “It’s a large deposit [that’s] about 400 ft. deep, and it spans an area of approximately 400 acres. Given its size and scale, we know that the makeup of the material is going to vary and, down through the years, we’ve invested in new equipment and adapted our operation in response to this.”
The deposit continues to evolve even today, according to Duff.
“It’s a different deposit now to what it was at the outset of this very partnership,” Duff says. “However, now we’re equipped with a CDE plant. We’re really impressed by the adaptability of the plant and just how little intervention is needed from our side to make the necessary adjustments in response to variations in the material we’re processing.
“That versatility is keeping us up and running,” he adds. “It’s keeping us competitive and profitable.”
Information for this article courtesy of CDE.
