Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/594078
AGGREGATES MANAGER November 2015 16 ing that time. The crew members work shifts of six hours on and six hours off for a full 21 days, then they are off for 21 days. Because of the unusual schedule, many of the crew members are from out of state and drive in once a month for their shifts. The pilot house on the tow boat pushing the barges raises and lowers. It lowers down to go under bridges, so it doesn't have to wait for a bridge to go up, and raises back up when it gets to the other side of the bridge to pro- vide a better view of the canal. "We have three line boats and five smaller tow boats in the fleet," Melvin says. "The small ones push barges around at the quarry and set them up for the bigger boats, which push the barges to Chicago or Peoria. We own 70 usable barges right now, which are all deck barges, so when it rains, the water can exit easily. The concrete plants we supply know that the mois- ture level of the material can change during shipment and adjust their water accordingly." Making the products The Des Plaines River and Highway 53 run right through the middle of Romeoville Quarry. The processing plant is on the east side of the river and highway next to the canal, which was perfect while the pit was on that side. However, the pit on the east side was eventually mined out, and a new pit was started on the west side of the river and highway. This presented a unique set of challenges — how to get equipment from one side of the high- way to the other without leaving the quarry, and how to get the material from the primary crusher in the new pit to the processing plant on the other side of the river. A tunnel was built under the high- way to allow haul trucks and loaders to access the new, active pit. A traffic light was installed on each side of the tun- nel to prevent the machines from run- ning into each other. "There's a blind spot, so we have to notify those on the other side that we're coming through, because it's a one-way tunnel," Pro- noitis explains. "We have garage door clickers in the haul trucks that change the traffic light on the other side of the tunnel to red, and vice versa." When the old pit was mined out, a newer pit was started on the other side of the highway. A tunnel was built under the highway to allow loaders and haul trucks easy access to the new pit. Blasts take place several times a week. For each blast, 15 to 22 holes are drilled so that 50,000 to 60,000 tons of material is put on the ground for processing. PLANT PROFILE