Pit & Quarry, October 2017

www kpijci com MOBILE EQUIPMENT RUNDOWN ALBERT FREI SONS 2 WA900 base loaders Komatsu 4 WA600 loaders Komatsu 2 PC490 excavators Komatsu 5 605 haul trucks Komatsu 2 775 haul trucks Caterpillar Precisely weighing material in hoppers before its distributed to customers is another approach that gets customers at Albert Frei Sons back on the road quickly Still keeping all of those bins and silos full is a science the operation has mastered over a number of years Albert Frei Sons success stems from a number of areas from a large investment a decade ago in its secondary tertiary plant to the 40 employees ranging from new hires to 30 year veterans who currently work on site The real credit of success goes to the boots on the ground Albert Jr says Our people are the greatest asset within the business If we dont have good people we have nothing The goal at the end of the day of course is to send those employees home safely In terms of production the operations goal is to continuously keep those bins and silos full And that means providing employees with a plant that can essentially produce 33 million tpy in just in time inventory We fill the bins up every night and its a wild ride Albert Jr says IT STARTS WITH A VISION But getting a sense of why Albert Frei Sons operates as it does and why its made some of the investments in equipment and technology that it has requires an understanding of the Walstrum Quarrys origins The Denver metro area was pretty flush with sand and gravel Albert Jr says The gravel pits in that area prospered pretty well but they eventually all got depleted As the availability of more metro area alluvial pits dried up five producers looked to the Front Range for opportunities in the 1970s and 1980s Albert Jr says The producers targeted Boulder County to the northwest of Denver and Jefferson County to the west and southwest But all five producers came up empty in their attempts to permit a crushed stone site he says Jefferson and Boulder Counties like their Front Range scenic views Albert Jr says Albert Jr s father however had the foresight to go one more county to the west to Clear Creek County Albert Sr ultimately got his permit and the Walstrum Quarry opened alongside the highway Everybody kind of thought my dad was crazy because were so far away from the market Albert Jr says Were about 22 miles farther away than our competition They all kind of thought he was a little delusional that this would really work The setup has worked though The first 10 years in business were difficult according to Albert Jr But his dad bided his time and watched more ideally situated alluvial gravel sites fade away And now with an estimated 40 to 50 million tons remaining in the operations permit the Walstrum Quarry is considered a go to site for the Denver area despite its more remote location Were really the last independent aggregate supplier in the Denver market Albert Jr says OPTIMIZING THE PLANTS Based on its location Albert Frei Sons must enhance any efficiency it can to diminish the rewards its nearest competitor reaps being 22 miles closer to the market The secondary tertiary plant the operation built 10 years ago is a classic example of an investment thats enhanced the operations efficiency as well as its production This is a really unique plant says pitandquarry com October 2017 PIT QUARRY 15