Processing activity at Rogers Group Inc.’s Rutherford Quarry begins in the pit, which is quite beautiful.
Some of you may have attended AGG1 in Nashville a few months ago, and you may have made it out to Rogers Group Inc.’s Rutherford Quarry for the NSSGA-sponsored tour of that operation. If you didn’t go on the tour, you really missed out. This quarry is large, extremely busy, and quite strikingly beautiful from the front entrance to the bottom of the pit.
“We try to keep things nice,” says Travis McGaffee, area production manager for Rutherford Quarry and several other quarries in southeast Tennessee. “We keep things in good repair. When you drive into our operation, it looks clean and nice. I think we’ve got one of the nicest looking pits. I’m proud to show people this quarry.”
After material is crushed at the primary plant in the pit, it is carried via conveyor to a live storage surge pile on top. A guard was built beneath the conveyor where it crosses the quarry road to prevent material spillage from striking vehicles.
The limestone quarry was opened near Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1985 by Stoneman, after which it passed through Lehigh Hanson’s hands and was eventually acquired by Rogers Group in 2000. Since then, it has become one of the top aggregate producers in the area, mainly because of all the growth going on in that part of the state.
“A lot of the area is farmland, but Murfreesboro is growing so much right now, the amount of residential homes and multi-family homes being built is unreal,” McGaffee says. “We’ve taken off here because of all that growth. There hasn’t been a whole lot of roadwork going on because of the lack of federal funding. If there was a whole lot of roadwork going on, it would be unbelievable how busy we would be.”
Daily operations
Material runs through an enclosed screen tower at the secondary plant, where it is separated into three different products.
Rutherford is a pretty typical aggregate operation in most ways — it makes big rocks into little rocks. That starts with drilling and blasting, which is contracted out. A local contractor does all the drilling, and Austin Powder comes in to design the shot, lay it out, load the shot, and shoot it.
Once the blasting is done, a pit loader loads the material into haul trucks, which carry it to the primary plant located in the pit. After the rock goes through the primary crusher, it travels up a 300-foot conveyor to a service pile, or live storage surge pile, that can hold as much as 12,000 tons of material. A tunnel underneath the storage pile feeds material onto a conveyor that carries it to the secondary plant with another crusher and an enclosed screen tower where three different products are pulled out.
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One of those three products is crusher run, which is conveyed to a stockpile. A tunnel running beneath that stockpile feeds material into the pug mill system, which is fully automated. The pug mill system includes a conveyor and a scale underneath two material bins — one for dry crusher run and one for pug, crusher run mixed with water. The truck driver simply pulls up to the sign with instructions. He pushes a button to select the type of material he wants and the weight his truck can hold. Then, he pulls forward onto the scale under the bin holding the material he wants. The system loads the truck with material and automatically cuts off when the truck reaches the proper weight. If the truck has an RFID tag, the driver doesn’t have to go to the scalehouse to get a ticket, he can pick it up from a kiosk as he exits the pug mill.
The pug mill system allows drivers to pull up, push a button to select the product and weight they want, pull under the correct bin, and push another button to begin loading. The scale beneath the bins automatically closes the bin when the desired weight is reached.
Material not pulled out at the secondary plant is sent on to the tertiary plant where one dry product is taken out. The remaining material is sized, crushed, and sent to a wash plant where three different wash products are made for ready-mix concrete and asphalt customers.
The quarry operates two full-time scales at the scalehouse that are open from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Between the scales at the scalehouse and the scale at the pug mill, the operation is in constant motion with trucks coming and going.
Four months ago, the plant was fully automated so that one operator in the primary plant control tower in the pit can monitor and run the entire operation, including the two cone crushers in the secondary and tertiary plants, all the conveyors, and the surge pile. The operator can tilt, pan, and zoom the cameras to see different locations in the plant. Two monitors located in the control tower allow the operator to see the primary plant on one monitor and the secondary and tertiary plants on the other.
Part of the community
Many of the quarry employees live in Blackman, the small community where the quarry is located, so they care about what their neighbors think of the operation. They work hard at keeping the quarry out of sight, but work just as hard at keeping it in the community’s mind, but in a positive way.
“I live in this community, in a neighborhood two miles down the hill, and my kids go to school here,” McGaffee says. “We definitely want to be a good neighbor. We’re involved in Blackman and Stewart Creek schools and have built a good relationship with the school administrations. We do everything from teacher luncheons on teacher work days to working at fairs, such as book fairs at the schools or community fairs, to donating to sports programs. We do a reading literacy program and donate books and computers to the schools. It gives us a face in the community.”
But McGaffee adds that it isn’t just about donating money or receiving awards, it’s about getting involved and having a positive impact on the people in the community.
A busy quarry means there’s a lot of truck traffic through the neighborhood. Quarry personnel try to minimize the impact of that traffic on the community by sweeping around the scalehouse and the plant entrance, as well as up and down the main road leading in both directions from the entrance to keep the road clear of any rock that might spill out of the trucks leaving the plant.
“We sweep every day to keep the roads clean for our neighbors,” McGaffee explains. “We don’t want to be a nuisance. If the neighbors have any concerns, I want them to come to me and tell me what they are so I can address them and try to make things better rather than have them sit back and let it build until it becomes a big problem. Generally, when you address issues up front and people see that you’re being proactive and trying to remedy any problems they have, they’re much more receptive to you as a company and as a person.”
As they leave, customer trucks go through a wheel wash, which cleans their tires and helps minimize the dust being tracked out of the quarry. A road-capable water truck not only reduces dust levels down in the plant, it can travel out onto the roads in the neighborhood to clean the roads when necessary.
One of the most popular events that the quarry hosts is its annual Barbecue in the Pit. Between 250 and 300 people, including the sheriff of Rutherford County, school principals, local legislators, local public works people, and people from the neighborhood, are invited to attend the event. A large tent is set up in the bottom of the pit where everybody is served barbecue, and gifts and prizes are handed out. McGaffee says it’s a big, nice event, and people look forward to coming back every year.
The 5S program
Rogers Group has an internal award program called the 5S program, which includes Sustain, Standardize, Sort, Straighten, and Shine, but a sixth S has been added for Safety. To apply for the award, every operation can submit up to three different projects that they’ve done each year. Out of the submissions, the judges pick out the most creative projects and the projects that have had the most significant impact.
At the tertiary plant, one dry product is taken out, then the rest of the material is sized, crushed, and sent to a wash plant to make wash products for ready-mix asphalt customers.
“I’m very competitive and so are most of my guys,” McGaffee says. “The 5S program has really brought out our pride and competitive spirit, because everybody in the other areas competes with us. Rutherford won the first two years of competition, so everybody wants to beat us. The competition is good, and it instills a sense of pride in the employees.”
One of the projects that won an award for Rutherford Quarry was the way it organized its shop. “We have conveyor, screen, and crusher V-belts hanging on the walls in the shop. We put signs above each of them that shows its size and what equipment it fits,” McGaffee explains. “There’s a labeled shelf for everything in the shop to keep it organized. So whether a guy has been here five years or five weeks, he can go to the shop and quickly and easily find what he needs. We do that to be more efficient, but the key is not just to win the awards, it’s to maintain that organization going forward.”
One thing that was done recently pertains to hazard training for customers. At most sites, office personnel go over a hazard recognition form with anyone who comes on site. Rutherford Quarry has implemented a kiosk, an area in the scalehouse with a computer, where those entering the site can watch site-specific hazard training videos and then print off a form with their signature showing they’ve completed the training.
A tunnel running underneath the live storage surge pile feeds material onto a conveyor that carries it to the secondary plant, where it is processed through another crusher and an enclosed screen tower.
“That was a 5S submittal when safety first became a part of the program,” McGaffee notes. “That idea came out of Whites Creek Quarry. Brian Dillard came up with that, and after he did it, I did it. Now, kiosks are being put in at every site.”
Safety meetings take place every morning to get all the employees focused on safety before they go to work. A range of topics are discussed, including anything related to Rogers Group’s company-wide near-miss program. If an incident occurs that didn’t result in an injury, but could have, each site is responsible for writing up a near-miss report that says exactly what happened, what the contributing factors were, and what preventive measures going forward would help prevent it from happening.
“We don’t pattern our safety program after MSHA, we go above and beyond that,” McGaffee explains. “Our main goal is to not get people hurt. We have safety committees made up of hourly people who go to other sites to do inspections. They see things that people who are there every day might not see. They take pictures and do a write up at the end of the day, and then they present it to the plant manager. He goes over it with them and sets up dates to fix anything that’s found. It’s just an extra thing we do internally to try to head off injuries and incidents. It’s a good thing.”
Looking to the future
The primary, secondary, and pug mill were built new in 2007, but the tertiary plant has been in operation since the plant was built in the 1980s. The tertiary plant was slated to be replaced in 2008, but the economy went south, so the project was tabled…until recently. In April, the project was being discussed and considered once again.
“Maybe by winter, we’ll have a set plan, and we can start requesting early capital for it next year,” McGaffee says. “It’ll probably be a six- to eight-month project. I figure we’ll probably be finished with the project by the fall of next year, if it gets approved through corporate. I’ve got it laid out so we’ll be able to continue running the old plant while we’re building the new one, and we won’t have to shut the old one down until we get ready to tie the new one in, which shouldn’t be more than a couple week process.
“That’s kind of what we see in the future. The market will support it, and the reserves are definitely here to support it. The reserves will be here long after we’re gone.”