On the River's Edge

Jan 24, 2008 3:02 PM

Rock  Products-January Issue

Welch Sand & Gravel has camped along side the Great Miami River, a tributary of the Ohio River, for the past several years. And with just an excavator, haul truck, wheel loader, portable screener and some off-site crushing, the company has been able to yield an additional 250,000 to 300,000 tpy.

Rich sand and gravel deposits collects just downstream of this dam.

This is made possible through the Miami Conservancy District, a river management agency operating in Southwest Ohio that is responsible for flood control. (Permitting is through the Army Corps of Engineers.) Each year, the agency contracts with Welch to remove material buildup that collects downstream of a high-water dam. This helps the City of Hamilton preserve the river for recreational activities downstream.

This is a 10-month operation, explains Production Superintendent Rick Goessling. They start operating in March, on a 15-acre area where the material collects after being washed downstream from seasonal floods. At the start of the season, a truck can drive straight across the river on the material that has collected. By December, nothing is left but free-flowing water at a depth of 3 feet.

The company removes the material with a 345B Caterpillar excavator, which loads a Volvo A35 articulated dump truck. Both operate right on top of the material being removed. Goessling says material is removed methodically to maintain a dry path to shore. However, there have been occasions when the haul truck has been in axle-deep water.

The truck drives the material to shore in about three minutes where it is allowed to dry before screening. Then the truck returns about two minutes later for another sopping-wet load. When the material is dry enough, a 980F Caterpillar wheel loader feeds a track-mounted 356 Nordberg from Mesto Minerals. It is an entirely self-contained dry-screening operation that really does a good job, Goessling says.

Not all of what the company excavates is good material. This unwanted debris is now the company's responsibility.

Welch has run more than a million tons of material through it, and the company is just now starting to replace the bearings and some head-pulley couplers. Management also is extremely happy with the wear life on the stainless-steel screens. Goessling says that regular steel screens in the past would be replaced twice a season because of the moisture in the material.

“For the first two or three years, there was practically no maintenance on that machine,” Goessling says.

Aside from the mechanics, there remains some regular site maintenance. Goessling says that every couple of days the screener needs to be moved to clean up the spillage. But this is a simple process because it is track-mounted and operated by remote control. He says the operator doesn’t even need to get off the loader. All together, this is about a 45-minute process. Goessling says preparing it for transport is just as simple.

“You just unpin the conveyors, and they unfold into itself. And then you walk it up the drag with the remote control,” Goessling explains. “Whenever the driver can chain it down, you are good to go.”

The river yields three products for Welch: a 310 pipe fill and a dry-screened one-inch gravel. All oversize is hauled away and stored at a different location. It is stockpiled until there is 40,000 to 50,000 tons on the ground; Welch then crushes it into the third product, a state-spec 304 base aggregate. This typically is done twice a year.

Dried material is loaded into a portable screener with this 980F Cat wheel loader.

Unfortunately, the river also yields some undesirable material including things like old tires or even bowling balls. “It’s minimal,” Goessling says. “But, whenever you are in a river like that you are going to have debris. ... You just have to sift through it.” Goessling adds that once Welch excavates it, they own it. It cannot be put back into the river. Instead it has to be transported to an appropriate waste site.

Material sold leaves the site in both Welch-owned and contracted dump trucks, which cross a Cardinal scale mounted on a concrete footer. Material sits next to a small office made from 20-foot sea containers. Inside, a scale man waits at the printer and communicates over the telephone with a centralized dispatcher.

Meanwhile, the City of Hamilton continues to benefit from the river that Welch helps preserve.

Click here to read about one of Welch Sand & Gravel's dredging operations.