Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/674527
AGGREGATES MANAGER / May 2016 13 duced to the soil, it gets very challenging to drive in. "We keep a pump running in the pit to pull the water out so we can mine, otherwise there would be 3 to 4 feet of water in it," says Tim Soule, area sand and gravel manager for Hanson. "Drier material is a lot easier to put on the conveyor." Because of all the moisture in the soil, the operation started out with draglines. "It was a dragline operation that we later converted to excavators and trucks," Soule says. "Right now, we're running one internal pit and have a separate satellite mining operation off site. The off-site operation is unique to this plant. We have contract load and haul at that site, so two contractors do the excavating and hauling for us." One contractor does all the excavat- ing at the site and places the material into a stockpile. The other contractor loads it into belly-dump trucks and hauls it to the Bristol plant for process- ing. The trucks dump into a pivoting clamshell feeder at a separate location near the processing plant. The clam- shell opens out fl at for dumping. Once the material is dumped, one side of the clamshell raises up and then pivots so that the other side raises up to force all of the material through the grizzly, into the hopper, and onto a 42-inch-wide conveyor that carries it to a telescop- ing, radial stacker for stockpiling. If necessary, the material can even be