Aggregate quarry a rock-solid business

PEABODY – From the street, Aggregate Industries in Peabody looks like a simple building with a wide-open backyard. But if you happen to wander into that backyard, watch your first step – it’s a lulu!Aggregate Industries is an international construction and building materials company that produces gravel, crushed stone and sand as well as asphalt and ready mixed concrete.Just beyond the Russell Street office sits a rock quarry that drops in levels to about 180 feet deep. Similar quarries can be found in Swampscott and Saugus.Peabody Supervisor Mike Hollow said he is often asked why, in this day and age, there is a need for a quarry. Hollow said that’s easy – because society would be hard pressed to get by without them.Quarries, according to Hollow, contribute to the production of everything from hospitals, homes and roadways to eyeglasses, cleansers and toothpaste.”We are where construction starts, we’re the point of origin,” he said. “Quarries have a vital role in society, but a lot of people don’t understand us.”In the Peabody quarry, a front-end loader moves broken and crushed asphalt, or T-base, around. Other trucks come in to pick up sand, dust or crushed stone.Inside, what looks to be a jumble of old machinery that’s been left out in the rain are actually three different rocker crushers. Hollow explains that rock that starts out at about 4 inches is busted down to 1 inch, then run through a second crusher to produce 3/4-inch or smaller rocks, and still a third crusher to get sand.In Peabody, those crushers produced 400,000 tons of crushed stone last year. In Swampscott, it was closer to 1.2 million tons.The serene green water that fills the bottom of the quarry covers a pump that runs to the top of the road leading into the hole that pumps 900 gallons per minute.Kevin Ryan mans a water truck/sweeper that uses much of that water to suppress the dust within the quarry to keep trucks from carrying it out. Hollow said if left unchecked, the quarry would actually fill completely with water on its own.Though the quarry will continue operating for at least another 10 years, Hollow said a closure plan for the quarry is already one of the discussions on the table with the Peabody. So is a possible expansion of the facility.Hollow is quick to explain that the expansion would not extend beyond the quarries current footprint. It would include digging out one of the levels within the existing hole. It would also extend the life of the quarry another eight to 10 years.To explain that plan and clue the public in on other aspects of the company, Hollow said Aggregate is trying hard to become more active in the community.Aside from sponsoring a traffic island in Peabody, conducting the odd field trip and getting involved in local science fairs, the company held a highly successful open house in Swampscott last year and plans to do the same in Peabody.Hollow said the Peabody plant plans to throw open its doors to the community in October for tours and an overview of what Aggregate is all about.Even a company as large as Aggregate has not been immune to the tough financial times, however. Hollow said projections last year had the Peabody quarry producing 55,000 tons of stone and dust per month and this year those projections are down to 45,000 tons.”We’ve seen a reduction in business just like other businesses,” he said.But that isn’t slowing them down much. Worldwide, Aggregate is still a force to be reckoned with – proving the need for quarries still exists.