On the move: mobile crusher's recycling capabilities and easy transport help reduce operating costs for Coalville, Utah contractor

Construction & Demolition Recycling, July-August, 2005 by Bill Elverman

Russell Dean Geary formed Geary Construction in 1947 in Coalville, Utah. A Marine who had just returned from World War II, Geary started out with a backhoe and a dump truck as a means in simply make a living. He quickly earned a reputation for his work and began to take on employees to expand the business.

A man with a deep respect for anyone willing to put in a hard day's work, he ran his business with a couple of goals in mind: to create job security for his employees and to expand his equipment fleet to make his first goal possible.

Nearly 60 years later, Geary Construction has built a base of clients and a rock solid reputation throughout Utah. Specializing in road and pipeline construction, land reclamation, soil stripping and railings ponds for mines, private site development and custom gravel crushing and production, Geary Construction is now operated under the watchful eye of Geary's daughter, DeAnn Geary. Since her father's death in 1991, she has grown the business beyond his imagination and with the same employee-focused mantra that he held so dearly: Create job security for employees and do so by expanding equipment and operations.

To that end, Geary has continuously expanded her company's equipment fleet and diversified its capabilities. The custom gravel and production operation is one example--a segment of the business that she has grown because of the increased demand for sand and gravel products in the Salt Lake City area. In recent years, governmental regulations, environmental responsibility and market forces have also precipitated the need to recycle construction materials such as concrete and asphalt. With that in mind, Geary saw the opportunity to add versatility and cost savings to her equipment fleet by buying a mobile crusher--Komatsu's BR380JG-1--that benefited her crushing and recycling business in more ways than one.

GOING MOBILE

DeAnn Geary's father started the gravel business, but it wasn't until after she had taken full control of the company that she realized the niche her company could help fill.

"My father told me that I'd have enough resources to last a lifetime," says Geary. "But I sold more gravel in one month than he sold in one year."

Geary Construction did a massive amount of work in the region prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and expanded its crushing operations to include three stationary crushing plants. Geary Construction provided all of the gravel for the Silver Creek Junction/Interstate 80 Interchange, and the Utah Olympic Park and Snow Basin. In 2000 alone, the company produced 700,000 tons of material--tripling its 1999 sales.

The Olympic-related work further expanded the company's horizons and made it a preferred contractor for public roads and private ski resort developments in the area. And since then, the demand for gravel products--from standard sand products all the way up to 6- to 12-inch gabion rock--hasn't wavered. Geary currently keeps two of her stationary crushing units at the company's gravel pit and has moved another to a jobsite in Altamont, Utah, where on-site crushing needs are extensive enough to warrant the relocation of an entire crushing plant.

But with only two crushing units at its home pit, Geary Construction began to feel squeezed with its production capabilities. On top of that, the company started taking in asphalt and concrete products off of jobsites--the recycling of which tied up the stationary crushing units that were needed to produce its rock and roadbase products. A product demonstration in fall 2004 led to the quick purchase of a mobile crusher and the answer to Geary's problems.

"Bill Gobble and Doug Tripp from Komatsu Equipment Co. (KEC) told me they were bringing in a BR380JG-1 mobile crusher and asked if I'd like to demo it in my pit," recalls DeAnn Geary. "Earlier in the year, I had gone to Komatsu Field Days in Las Vegas and it was really fun to see the crusher in action. I thought this was something I could really use. At the end of two days (of the demo), I told them I wasn't going to allow them to take it out of my pit because I was buying it."

CUTTING COSTS

In addition to its work at the pit, Geary also sees a benefit in the crushers size, which makes it easy to transport from jobsite to jobsite. On smaller jobs, where a full-size crushing plant isn't needed but recycled, crushed aggregates could be used, a mobile crusher helps eliminate the trucking costs associated with hauling out aggregate debris and hauling in new, usable material.

"Another reason we expanded to this mobile jaw crusher," explains Geary, "is because there are so many jobs where we're excavating and hit a pile of material that is great fill material. With this mobile crusher we can take it to the jobsite and make our own 3-inch granular borrow," she says. "That eliminates the trucking expense associated with hauling out material that might be too big, making us more competitive on these jobs."

Geary says a larger mobile unit would be a benefit to production, but the size advantages of the Komatsu unit are that it can easily be transported on a low-boy trailer without disassembly--a fact that saves on labor and/or rental costs for hiring an outside transport. With a transportation length of 41 feet, a height of 11 feet and a width of 9 feet, 2 inches, it is easily transportable from site to site without a problem. The machine will also allow Geary to tackle jobs that in the past were deemed "too small" for on-site crushing.