Rick Goessling and Virgil Cooley

At Welch Sand & Gravel, draglines are rusting away in small equipment graveyards and are threatened by extinction as new technology prevails. Decades ago, these mechanical beasts were a common necessity. But today five hibernate, slowly being overcome by weeds, on the yards of Welch Sand & Gravel, as the company moves to more efficient and less burdensome methods for extracting material.

Welch is a family-owned operation serving the Cincinnati area. There are four operations all together and none are dependant on draglines any longer. Today, Welch's Bucyrus, Manitowoc and Northwest draglines just sit on the sidelines as their clamshells scoop out material from the bottom of the ponds.

Production Superintendent Rick Goessling says draglines still can be an important component of a small operation producing around 50,000 tpy. But they are no longer cost efficient for an operation of Welch's caliber. The company consistently ranks as one of the largest sellers of sand and gravel in the state of Ohio. Their Ross Plant alone produces 750,000 tpy. The amazing thing is that this is done with only two operators from the dredge to the stockpile.

Four of the five draglines are still in good working order. The company continues to perform annual maintenance on them just to keep them running with hopes of selling them off. But potential buyers just shake their heads at the sight of them.

“You can hardly give them away now. Nobody wants to use them,” Goessling says. “You can't find anybody to work on them and nobody wants to run them.”

Welch Sand & Gravel uses a Rohr clamshell dredge, which greatly enhances the operation and yields up to 700 tph.

DREDGING

Dredging has proven to be a much more efficient method of production for three Welch operations. They now utilize a 13-cubic-yard Rohr clamshell, a 7-cubic-yard Rohr clamshell and a 8-cubic-yard luffing jib dredge.

The 13-cubic-yard clamshell is the foundation of the company's Ross facility, serving the Cincinnati market. Virgil Cooley, Ross plant foreman, says this mammoth machine weighs in at 600,000 pounds. It can produce as much as 700 tph and can reach 200 feet below the surface.