Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/594078
19 AGGREGATES MANAGER November 2015 PLANT PROFILE the quarry and how it's done. The prin- cipal of the high school has asked that blasts take place at 2:05 p.m. during a passing period at the school, and quarry personnel do their best to make that happen. As a courtesy, on a morning that a blast is planned, an email is sent to the principal to let him know that it will take place that day and alert him if any changes will be made to the timing of the shot due to weather conditions. "We've had Cub Scouts come in for tours and have given tours to various other groups," Pronoitis says. "We do training programs with the fire depart- ment and let them train with our equip- ment, so they know how to handle dif- ferent situations and scenarios. We also hold an open house for our employees' families, so they can see what their spouses do for a living." The quarry has an environmental program that sends reminders of what needs to be done on a daily and monthly basis, which helps with community rela- tions. All out-flow water is monitored, and once a month, a sample is sent out to an independent company for testing. Diesel and gasoline tanks are inspected to make sure there are no external or internal leaks in the double walls, and a plan is in place to prevent any spills of oils, anti-freeze, or other contaminants from getting into the waterways. Boat crews watch for any sheen in the water and find out where it's coming from. Emphasizing safety Sept. 21 started Lehigh Hanson's 2015 Safety Week. During that week each year, for a part of every day, Monday through Friday, the plant shuts down so that everyone can attend a safety meet- ing. The focus is on a different safety topic each day. But Pronoitis points out that Safety Week isn't the only time safety is ad- dressed at the operation. "We discuss safety every day," he says. "We have pre-job meetings where we look at the job that needs to be done and talk about what safety steps should be taken. If the job is at a height, it needs fall protection, or if the job is on a lift that might take you near power lines or other hazards, proper procedures must be fol- lowed. We talk about near-misses and fatalgrams whenever they happen, and try to go above and beyond the minimum MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) requirements." Lehigh Hanson also does face- to face meetings. Supervisors go out into the quarries and engage the employees while they're do- ing their jobs. They thank the employees that are using the proper safety proce- dure or wearing the proper safety gear, document it, and send it to headquarters. "Safety is a focal point," Pronoitis con- tinues. "We try to watch out for each other and try to watch out for others. A couple times a year, we give rules and maps of our site to the truck drivers, and if a truck has never been on our yard before, we send the rules and map down the tube to the driver." AM A crawler crane and material handler equipped with 5-cubic-yard clam shell buckets are used to load and unload barges on the canal. As a sliding shuttle conveyor loads material onto a barge at Lehigh Hanson's Romeoville Quarry, a tow boat pushes six fully loaded barges toward the city on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. https://youtu.be/WFx1A0D8K6I