Next chapter underway at Haydon Materials

David Haydon knew the Cedar Creek Quarry’s days were numbered as aggregate reserves at the longtime operation dwindled.

The site on East John Rowan Boulevard in Bardstown, Kentucky, opened back in the 1930s, having changed ownership several times over the course of its history. The operation was under Haydon Materials’ control by 2009 following a stint with Cemex, but the company realized a few years earlier that yet another local operation would be necessary to meet the future needs of the market.

Haydon Materials was ultimately successful in establishing an additional site in Bardstown, ramping up operations at the brand-new Airport Road Quarry early this year. According to Haydon, the Airport Road Quarry is built to produce 1 million tpy, and it’s currently providing a significant percentage of Kentucky’s skid-resistant stone.

Still, establishing the new site was not done overnight. The Airport Road Quarry’s journey as a greenfield originated in the 2000s, when the property was zoned and a small amount of portable crushing took place. But before the operation could take off, additional reserves were realized a few miles away at the Cedar Creek Quarry, delaying the true launch of the Airport Road Quarry for about a decade.

Haydon Materials is now off and running on Airport Road, though, and the greenfield represents the latest chapter for the family-owned company that also operates quarries in Battletown, Greensburg and Lebanon, Kentucky.

“It’s fun to start from scratch with a greenfield and build it from the ground up,” says Haydon, president of Haydon Materials.

Key figure

Ed Gum, quarry manager at Haydon Materials, was a central figure in building up the Airport Road Quarry.

Gum, whose career in the aggregate industry spans several decades, joined Haydon Materials in 2008. And he stumbled upon the opportunity at Haydon Materials by chance.

“The wife and I were out on a motorcycle and we stopped at Bardstown to fill up gas,” Gum says. “I told her when she was inside to grab a local paper.”

A Haydon Materials advertisement inside the newspaper sought a quarry manager in Bardstown.

“My wife and I almost got into an argument because I knew Haydon didn’t have a quarry in Bardstown,” says Gum, who was more local to the Bardstown area yet had been commuting to an industry job in southern Indiana at the time. “I said that can’t be because it’s a Cemex operation.”

Gum wasn’t wrong about the East John Rowan Boulevard operation being under Cemex control at the time, but he hadn’t caught wind of Haydon’s new vision on Airport Road. Fortunately for Gum, he applied for the job and got a quick call from Haydon about the position.

“About a week later they had me at Airport Road,” Gum says.

But Gum wasn’t at the Airport Road Quarry for long. Haydon wound up purchasing the Cedar Creek Quarry from Cemex within Gum’s first year on the job, largely repositioning Gum within Bardstown from 2009 to 2018.

The venture on Airport Road, however, remained on his radar.

“We had several meetings over a couple of years and decided where we were going to sit the plant and where we were going to open the pit,” Gum says. “We decided to keep the original pit in 2008 for a water reserve, and we decided to open up another pit.”

Building the plant

In the meantime, Gum and others worked closely with Process Machinery, an equipment dealer based in Louisville, whose engineering and design team offered its services to Haydon Materials’ Airport Road site.

“We talked with them several times about several different plant designs,” Gum says.

Key components of the primary plant setup are a Deister feeder and a C125 Metso jaw crusher. The jaw is the same one that was used at the operation across town, producing about 800 tph for the Airport Road Quarry.

“It’s rated less than that but we’re getting 800,” Haydon says.

The Airport Road Quarry’s secondary plant consists of an HP400 cone crusher and two HP300s from Metso. The HP300s were also brought over from the Cedar Creek Quarry, but everything else in the complete plant is brand new – including 8-ft. x 24-ft. Deister finishing screens.

“They’re quad-deck screens,” says Stuart Haydon, area quarry manager and David’s son. “They’re big.”

The Airport Road Quarry also has a wash plant with a McLanahan double screw washer.

“I’ve had single screw washers before but I never had experience with a double screw,” Gum says. “It’s the amount of product you’re putting into it. That was the only reason we went with the double screws.”

Developing efficiencies

As Haydon Materials constructed the new plant, decision makers also had serious discussions about how it would run. In the end, the company elected to utilize a system from Etheridge Automation from the secondary plant onward.

So far, the system has exceeded Haydon Materials’ expectations.

“After the plant operator starts the plant, the automation will slowly start to increase the feed from the surge pile to the plant,” Stuart says. “The automation will continue to increase the feed until a conveyor motor begins to pull high amps or a bin level indicator reads high. At this point, the automation will adjust the feed every few seconds to stay just below that high point. This ensures the plant is pushed to the max as much as possible.”

According to JB Haydon, equipment manager and Stuart’s cousin, Etheridge Automation guaranteed 10 percent more production with the system. For Gum, having the system on Airport Road is a real bonus.

“The automation is just fantastic,” Gum says. “Having the computer run the plant and maximize the throughput is a huge plus.”

Haydon Materials was already utilizing an Etheridge Automation system at its Battletown Quarry, and it’s exploring the opportunity at its Lebanon Quarry. The system on Airport Road helps Haydon Materials efficiently produce #8 and #9 stone for the state, plus other materials.

Second life

While Haydon Materials has officially transitioned in Bardstown from the Cedar Creek Quarry to the Airport Road Quarry, the company has about 100,000 tons of inventory remaining at Cedar Creek.

That material will be sold sooner than later, and the Cedar Creek Quarry and surrounding property will move into a new phase in the coming years. The 450 acres will become Kentucky Owl Park, which is expected to include a distillery, convention center, two lakes and a luxury hotel.

That’s a unique second life for a retired quarry, but Kentucky’s bourbon boom presented an ideal opportunity to Haydon as the Cedar Creek Quarry neared the finish line.

The Airport Road Quarry, on the other hand, represents a new beginning for Haydon Materials, and with a one-of-a-kind geology that lends itself to the production of skid-resistant stone, the operation’s future in Bardstown is bright.

“This is the farthest south in Kentucky that there is this material,” David says. “Tennessee has some down there, and they get a little bit in the southern part of Kentucky. But we get the majority of the central part of the state down to the Tennessee line.”

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History of significant projects

Ed Gum, quarry manager at Haydon Materials, is no stranger to plant startups and expansions.

For Haydon Materials, Gum helped install a new crushing plant in 2015 at the company’s Battletown Quarry. He’s also currently guiding the transition from one pit to another at Haydon Materials’ Lebanon Quarry.

And long before Gum joined Haydon Materials in 2008, he gained experience at Vulcan Materials, starting in 1973, and later at Rogers Group.

“Back in 1983, I went to work for Rogers Group over at Oldham County Stone,” he says. “Rogers Group was looking for an underground foreman, and I opened up a couple of underground mines for them.”

He was also part of a new plant operation for Gohmann Asphalt & Construction in 1986, and he expanded on the plant in 1987 and again in 1993, eventually ramping up the plant to 1,200 tph.

“I love something that’s out of the ordinary,” Gum says. “I love the challenge and the satisfaction that comes with the completion of it, knowing you’ve done the best you can.”