Worth The Wait

Decades ago and long before starting Blessing Construction, Ron Blessing knew that one day there would be a market for recycled concrete and asphalt. "I’ve been ready to recycle material from demolition projects for more than 25 years," says the president of Kearney, Neb.-based Blessing Construction. However, knowing the regional conditions near the contractor’s headquarters, back then Ron knew the market was not ready.

So he waited and gained hands-on experience in the demolition and concrete paving businesses. Then, in 1998, Ron started Blessing Construction, which today offers a variety of services from demolition and excavation to site prep and concrete paving. Nearly from the beginning, Blessing used recycled concrete as subbase in its construction projects.

For nearly eight years, Blessing hired a contract crusher to process the company’s stockpiled demolition, concrete and asphalt materials. The arrangement worked for a while, but soon recycled product demand began to outpace supply, which created a problem. "We needed about 25,000 tons of recycled material per year, and the crushing contractor only produced about 20,000 tons," explains Dick Stokes, general manager & CFO of Blessing. "The crushing plant generated a large amount of waste material that included useable spec material that should have ended up on the finished product conveyor."

This hampered Blessing getting the recycled material when it was needed for its own paving operations. Since Ron has always been dedicated to using green building practices, he decided to take control of the company’s recycled material flow and improve operating efficiencies.

The company conducted extensive research focused on the feasibility of owning a portable crushing and screening plant. Blessing started with a cost analysis in late 2006. "We were paying the contract crusher between $5.50 and $6.50 per ton to crush material for us," Ron recalls. Stokes adds, "In total, we paid over $150,000 in 2006 for crushing services with little to show for it." Blessing used the recycled material but had no machine and limited excess product to sell to potential customers.

With stockpiles of uncrushed recyclable materials mounting in its yard, Blessing turned to crushing equipment manufacturers to determine cost of ownership for a portable crushing and screening plant. One manufacturer that took an in-depth interest in the new-to-crushing contractor was Eagle Crusher Co. Inc. of Galion, Ohio. "Blessing was very interested in learning the ins-and-outs of the crushing business and wanted to know what plant would be right for their operation and market," says Chris Harris, technical equipment sales application manager for Eagle Crusher Co. Inc.

After several conversations and 12 hours in face-to-face meetings with Harris, Blessing had narrowed the decision down to either an UltraMax 1200-25 or 500-05CC "Stealth" portable crushing plant. "Chris really went down to the nuts and bolts of the impactor and plant, so we would know what we were getting," says Scott Blessing, general superintendent for Blessing. Stokes discovered that all the yearly direct and indirect costs of owning the plant would amount to approximately 25 percent of what the company was paying the contract crusher. "After figuring the depreciation and salvage value was high enough that we would have a gain in the end, it was a no-brainer. We were buying a plant," he says.

The only decision left was which plant. Stokes admits that Harris probably could have talked them into buying the larger, higher production plant in order to make the bigger sale. However, Harris mentions, "With the big picture in mind, the best choice for Blessing and the biggest bang for the buck was the 500-05 plant." In February of 2007, Blessing purchased the Stealth plant from Eagle Crusher Co.

Perhaps the pivotal project that showed Blessing the need for a crushing and screening plant was a dorm demolition job at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Blessing was charged with razing the old Case and Ludden Halls during the early winter months of 2006. "For a concrete paving contractor in Nebraska like us, winter demo projects are a perfect fit," Stokes says. The long and cold Midwest winters provide an opportune time to rebuild material stockpiles for the paving season.

The three-story Case Hall, built in 1930, and the four-story Ludden Hall, built in 1961, had served the university well for decades. However, the structures were being cleared to make way for more modern halls with two- and three-bedroom suites that will be home to nearly 330 residents each year.

Blessing’s emphasis on being green helped the company to secure the job. "Our bid was nearly half that of the nearest competitive bid," Stokes says. "We planned on recycling the material, while the competition’s plans called for landfilling the bulk of the buildings."

And recycle they did. The university sold off some of the furniture and kept items of historical significance. The rest of the buildings and their contents were up to Blessing to take care of. The contractor commenced operations in January 2006 with the "soft" demolition of the lumber, drywall and carpeting. This was virtually the only material that went to the landfill.

Tin, copper, cast iron and steel found within Case and Ludden Halls were salvaged and sent to the scrap yard. The majority of the brick facing and buildings were demolished, sized and trucked back to Blessing’s facility, so it could be crushed and reused in the company’s other projects. "Some of the red brick facing was crushed into landscaping material and donated back to the university," Ron says.

During the entire project, Blessing’s crews made painstaking efforts to minimize disruption to campus activities. "Dust is a major issue. In order to keep the dust down at the jobsite we modified a T800 truck tractor previously used to pull a side dump trailer and retrofitted it with a 3,500-gallon water tank, six side spray nozzles and a roof-mounted water cannon," Scott explains. These efforts did not go unnoticed by Douglass Kristensen, chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Kearney, who sent Blessing a letter of appreciation for the crew’s efficiency and professionalism and a job well done.

In total, 13,000 tons of material was recovered from the dormitories demolition project. Of this, only 150 tons of "soft" debris was disposed of at the landfill and another 149 tons was salvaged at the scrap yard. Nearly 12,700 tons of heavily reinforced concrete and brick was stockpiled at Blessing’s yard. This resulted in a 98.8 percent recycling rate for the dorm project.

Much of the stockpiled material from the university demolition project served as the first test for Blessing’s new 500-05CC crushing and screening plant. "The older Case Hall had a lot of structural concrete with heavy rebar reinforcing and Ludden Hall had a lot of mesh material in it," Scott says.

Sized recycled concrete material is loaded into the plant’s 16-foot by 32-inch vibrating grizzly feeder, where it is channeled into the impactor’s 32-inch feed opening. The UM05 horizontal shaft impactor with a durable solid-steel, three-bar rotor delivers a three-stage crushing action to efficiently reduce the feed into a cubical product and break the rebar from the concrete.

Material exiting the crushing chamber is conveyed to the on-plant double-deck screen. Prior to the concrete hitting the top deck, ferrous material is removed via the plant’s in-line magnet. "The in-line magnet does a good job clearing the mesh and rebar from the concrete product," Stokes adds.

The 4-foot by 12-foot inclined screen allows Blessing to sort two spec cubical products simultaneously. Material passing the top deck makes the company’s 2.5-inch nominal product, while material passing the second deck delivers a spec 1.25-inch-minus subbase material. Blessing even uses the fine material that passes through the grizzly prior to entering the crushing chamber. "The grizzly loosens up the dirt to make a great subbase material that is easily compacted," Scott says.

For now, the UltraMax plant is being operated by the same crews that perform the company’s paving and demolition projects. As material is required for Blessing’s projects or requested by a customer, the crews will take the time to crush enough material to fill the demand. "We went with the 500-05 because we didn’t need the higher production of the 1200-25," Stokes explains. "We were looking for consistent production and the plant is delivering."

Looking ahead, Ron can see the day when the burgeoning crushing operation will become a major profit center for the company. But for now, Blessing, which has earned a reputation for delivering the best work for the dollar, is satisfied with the size of the crushing operation. It completes the vertical integration of this well-diversified contracting company, and it fulfills the 25-year recycling vision of its president.