Cemex shows off FEC Quarry during Young Leaders tour

Thus, Cemex officials went back to the drawing board to move the Marion 7820.

“We looked at a number of different ways for how we were going to get this machine from one side to the other,” Layfield says. “We actually came up with a very unique solution.”

The solution, he says, was to “cut the machine in half.”

More than 325 people attended the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association’s 2023 Young Leaders Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Many of those attending the meeting hopped on buses for an FEC Quarry tour. Photo: P&Q Staff

“It took six months, but we actually took the machine and, I say, we turned it into a convertible,” Layfield says. “We had to drop the boom, drop the gantry off and basically we cut the machine in half.”

Ultimately, Cemex achieved the clearance needed to move the dragline underneath the power lines.

“As we walked the machine right up to the edge of the power lines, we checked it once, we checked it twice and I said ‘check it again,’ Layfield says. “[If] we’re going underneath 500,000 volts, we’re going to make sure we got all of our math right.”

For a six-month project, the machine was underneath the power lines for all of 90 minutes.

“We reassembled the machine and put it into operation,” Layfield says. “To fully disassemble the machine, move it and put it back together, it was going to be double the cost.”

Currently, North American Mining is contract operating the Marion 7820 dragline for Cemex. Cemex, which owns the dragline, has historically operated the machine.

Editor’s note: Want to learn more about Cemex’s FEC Quarry? Check out our 2019 feature story on the operation.

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