Archives: May 2016

Customer Appreciation and Retirement Luncheon at Aquadale Quarry

Around 80 customers attended last week’s Customer Appreciation Luncheon at Aquadale Quarry. The event also honored one of our retiring salemen, Tony Harris, who has been an asset to the sales team at Aquadale for over 5 years. To show our appreciation for our customers’ and employees’ continued support and hard work, free BBQ, fixings, and a good time by all were shared.

Rocks Build America

DID YOU KNOW? In your lifetime, you will need 1.18 million pounds of stone, sand & gravel. From our roads, homes, and everyday products, aggregate materials are the make-up of our modern world.  For an in-depth look at the impact of rocks in our country, visit the NSSGA website  HERE

Stockpile Safety

Keeping our employees safe is our number 1 priority at Hedrick Industries.

According to MSHA, seven dozers were involved in stockpile accidents last year. Stockpile accidents happen most often when the rock material is “bridged” over a feeder, or other equipment, and a hidden cavity forms. Idle, rarely used stockpiles can also become more prone to bridging as the rock material consolidates over time. Stockpile bridging has the potential to be a serious danger, so use these practices to prevent accidents around stockpiles:

1. Never operate dozers directly above a feeder.
2. Always operate equipment facing the feeder
3. Place markers directly overhead of a feeder to indicate its location.
4. Install high strength safety glass in dozer cabs used on stockpiles.
5. Equip stockpile dozers with a transmitter that sounds an alarm and stops feeders and belts when the signal is lost.

Old Quarry Offers Anthropological Insight

Photo credit: Leore Grosman Naama Goren-Inbar

A quarry dating back to 11,000 years ago was newly discovered in Israel. The early Neolithic people that inhabited that area mined the Quarry at Kazier Hilltop for its flint and limestone. Archeologists found round cupmarks in the landscapes surface as evidence of a  large-scale quarry operation. The land was a part of the Meshash Formation, which was located in the caliche crust, known for its soft, powdery rock surface. In caliche areas, flint and limestone were extracted for the manufacturing of tools. Without the use of these tools, farming communities would not have developed. With the development of farming, cultural stages shifted away from hunter-gatherer way of life to cultivating their own foods.

Without the mining of aggregate material, indeed society and the tools we use could have evolved in a much different way.

Read the full story HERE