Oct. 7, 2014 – A quarry is going to be a movie star. Filming of “Where Heaven & Hell Collide,” a military-themed movie, began recently at the Lafarge quarry operation in Lockport, NY. The film focuses on the stories of four wounded service members and is set to be released in 2016. According to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, there…
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Lafarge Participates in River Cleanup
Lafarge North America employees volunteered for a Living Lands and Waters river cleanup of the Des Plains River in Channahon, Ill., near the Lafarge U.S. Joliet Quarry. The effort was part of the company’s national commitment to the organization. Earlier this summer, Living Lands and Waters also received a $20,000 donation on behalf of Lafarge U.S. and its employees. “Last week’s…
Read MoreJuly Construction Rises; Highways Down
New Construction Starts Climbed 6 Percent, But Highway Work Took An Alarming Hit. By Mark S. Kuhar
Read MorePermitting – September 2014
Illinois Quarry in QuestionTwo months after Robbins, Ill., trustees essentially voided a contract with a developer planning a limestone quarry and mine in the village, residents say they’re uncertain where those plans now stand. A trustee said no new talks have been held with ALM Resources since the village board’s vote in late June, according to the Southtown Star. That…
Read MoreBridging the Funding Gap
Sept. 23, 2014 – Big cheer for Pennsylvania for innovative infrastructure financing. More than 500 of Pennsylvania’s worst bridges will be replaced under a program that uses a private consortium to finance, design and build the bridges and then maintain them for 25 years. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation released the final list of 558 state bridges in the Rapid…
Read MoreDealer Days
Sept. 17, 2014 – I am blogging live this week from Denver, where KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens are holding their annual National Dealer Conference. The companies will be debuting four new pieces of equipment, including three new additions to its Global Track product line – a track-mounted GT440 horizontal shaft impact crushing plant, a track-mounted GT200 cone crushing plant and…
Read MoreRocking the Volcanoes
A CONTRACTOR DRILLS ROCK IN HAWAII WITH A NEW GENERATION OF HIGH-TECH RIGS. By Mark S. Kuhar Over many eons, volcanoes have erupted from the floor of the Pacific Ocean and formed the Hawaiian Islands, which slowly rise from the bottom. Today, those mountains of volcanic rock are a boon for Blasting Technology Inc., a drilling and blasting company that…
Read MoreQuarry Night
By Mark S. Kuhar Sometimes you find art in the darndest places. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on an article posted to a snarky section of CNN’s website called “Apparently this Matters,” and was welcomed by a huge brightly colored painting of an excavator in a quarry, executed with uncanny accuracy in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. The…
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MSHA has published a proposed rule that would amend its existing civil penalty regulations by simplifying the criteria for assessing health and safety violations and increasing emphasis on more serious safety and health conditions, thus providing “improved safety and health for miners.”
Read MoreFatality #18
September 3, 2014 – MSHA is reporting that on August 25, 2014, a 54-year-old truck driver with one year of experience was killed at a limestone mine. The victim went to a storage building to get some wooden planks. He climbed a stack of loaded pallets to get to the planks that were near the rafters and fell approximately 8 ft.…
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