Rock Products

MAY 2016

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40 • ROCK products • May 2016 www.rockproducts.com Also in 1989, the chairman of the Senate Environmental Pro- tection Subcommittee reintroduced a tougher waste minimi- zation and control bill, which would mandate recycling and destruction of waste material as the best method of dealing with waste. The bill also ordered the EPA to develop guide- lines for disposal of solid waste. Recycling concrete and asphalt by crushed stone producers increased drastically by 1992 amid some fears that recycled material diminish sales of virgin aggregate. A major testing ground for recyclers in California came after the 1989 earth- quake that struck the San Francisco Bay area, causing 59 deaths and massive property damage. Additional concrete destruction was caused by hurricane damage on the east coast in the same year and in 1992. New equipment developments in the period included: A new type of secondary breaker that exerted 1,000 tons of crushing force in a pinching movement was introduced at 1989's Hillhead exhibition in England. The Rock Cracker would rotate 90 degrees left and 15 degrees right. Also at Hillhead, an enclosed belt conveyor that could carry mate- rial around 90-degree bends and up 35-degree inclines was unveiled. In 1990, the world's largest mineral sand mining dredge was built for an Australian operation. The bucket-wheel dredge had a maximum digging depth of 82 ft..; a 24-in. dredge pump with 2,000-hp suction and discharge diameter of 24 in.; and was 195-ft. long, 52 ft.-wide, and nearly 10-ft. deep. Also in that year, Cedarapids developed the largest total- ly self-contained mobile primary in the world with a 5460 jaw crusher, 62-in., x 24 ½-ft. vibrating grizzly feeder, 60-in. undercrusher conveyor, and a 50-ft. elevating radial front delivery conveyor. The 630,000-lb. unit was capable of 1,000- to 1,400-tph capacities. Although not entirely new, a French-designed line of vertical shaft impact crushers was introduced to the outside quarry industry at Hillhead in 1991, marking the first display of such a product on a grand scale. Based on the controls used on video games, joystick controls were introduced on VME and Caterpillar wheel loaders in 1992. According to a speaker at 1990's Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference, 41 percent of U.S. bridg- es were deficient; more than 1 million miles of highway needed resurfacing by 2000; bringing highways up to speed would cost $60 billion per year; airports needed $24 billion for expansion and development over the next 10 years; and more than 28 million Americans were not served by modern sewage treatment facilities. Looking to boost sagging business in the construction indus- try, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) was passed in 1992, with the support of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, who went onto win the election that year. ISTEA increased highway funding and paved the way for a boost in the aggregate business in the years to follow. MID-DECADE DEVELOPMENTS Severe flooding in the Midwest caused damage to many aggregate plants in 1993. Many of the plants were at the fore- front of helping save communities during the worst of the floods by donating sand bagging equipment and materials, as well as materials to support levers under attack by the Mississippi River. The EPA, under the direction of Clinton-appointed Carol Browner, spent much of 1993 attacking both industries. The agency considered limiting transportation-related construc- tion, including highway building, if the activity was found to have a negative effect on air quality in polluted regions. At the same time, President Clinton established a new White House Office of Environmental Policy. Later in the year, Browner imposed a freeze on permitting waste incinerators and industrial furnaces, including cement kilns, stating that the agency would take "a series of immedi- ate additional actions to permanently enhance the hazard- ous waste prevention and combustion program." Immediately, the Cement Kiln Recycling Coalition (CKRC) took on the EPA concerning the agency's restrictions on

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