Contract Awarded For Limestone Quarry Expansion in Maryland

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Hydro-Geo Services (New Cumberland, Pennsylvania) has been chosen as the consultant for Lehigh Cement Company's (Allentown, Pennsylvania) $10 million expansion project for its limestone quarry in New Windsor, Maryland.

The project calls for expanding the mining footprint from 200 acres to about 900 acres. Lehigh owns all the acreage it seeks to expand to. The company will add a 400-ton-per-hour rock crusher and is studying methods on how best to establish a new transfer line from the New Windsor quarry to its Union Bridge cement plant about 4 miles away. Some options include additional trucks, rail or an overland conveyor belt system. Part of what Lehigh needs for the expansion is the state to amend an agricultural easement that would then allow Lehigh to move forward with the expansion of the operations. The state's Rural Legacy program department has plans for an online public hearing forum to be conducted, followed by a public hearing. No timetable has been set for these hearings. Lehigh has hopes that the permitting will be complete within two to four months.

Once the permitting and variances are in place, Lehigh Cement will select an engineering firm to complement its own engineering team from the Union Bridge cement plant. This should take place sometime in the third quarter of 2008. Once the new transport methods are decided on and the timing is finalized, construction is expected to begin late this year with completion anticipated in fall 2009.

The quarry has an estimated 120 million tons of stone that can be crushed and sent to plants to be used to produce white cement. The iron content of the limestone in the quarry is low, making it an excellent choice for producing white cement. The purpose of this quarry is to continue to be the single source of stone being supplied to Lehigh's Union Bridge plant.

Lehigh Cement was founded in 1897 in Allentown, Pennsylvania and employs more than 5,500 people in North America.

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