What’s happening these days at Wingra Stone

The O’Brien Quarry is the top-producing site for Wingra Stone. Photo: P&Q Staff

Family-owned Wingra Stone Co. will celebrate its 100th anniversary in another six years.

The company acquired a number of Wisconsin properties containing mineral reserves over nearly a century, and it currently has 11 active aggregate operations. Wingra produced roughly 1.3 million tons across those sites by its last count in 2020.

Reaching a mark like that each year is somewhat strategic, though, as the company counts on its sites surrounding Madison, Wisconsin, to each contribute volumes to the Wingra ledger. Wingra relies heavily on portable equipment because of its makeup, moving crushing and washing plants around as needed to meet the market’s demands.

“One of the good things about where we are is we can move plants, and we have an advantage on the trucking,” says Travis Wise, vice president and general manager of Wingra Stone, who joined the company in 2018. “Instead of hauling it all the way to the east side, for example, we’ll make material at the east-side pits and have closer trucking. That’s the nice thing about being versatile.”

Portable heavy

Wise

Wingra Stone’s top-producing quarry at the moment is the O’Brien Quarry, which it leases from Payne & Dolan.

According to Wise, Wingra produces about 400,000 tpy at the O’Brien Quarry in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, the city that also plays home to the company’s office and maintenance facilities. Wingra Stone produces eight products out of the O’Brien Quarry with a portable setup that’s essentially fixed within the site.

“This will be the last one that shuts down for the year,” Wise says. “It’s usually one of the first ones up and the last ones down.”

Construction projects aren’t as consistently available throughout the production season to justify crushing daily at some other Wingra Stone sites. In those cases, Wingra will move crushing plants to desired locations to keep material on the ground.

“In Wisconsin, you will see a lot of portable plants,” Wise says. “I see a lot of stationaries that are sitting there – some of the big quarries in Milwaukee and a couple around here. But most companies have portable plants.”

Track record of success

Wingra Stone is now three seasons in on its Kleemann MR 130 impact crushing plant. Photo: P&Q Staff

Wingra Stone, for instance, bought a Kleemann MR 130 impact crushing plant a few years ago that’s utilized within different operations and to produce a variety of materials. When P&Q visited in November 2021, the MR 130 was recycling concrete at Wingra Stone’s Kampmeier Quarry in McFarland, Wisconsin.

“This is our third season with the MR 130,” Wise says. “It’s been a nice addition to our fleet so we can move around and do small projects. We do road projects for customers, and it gives us the ability to move it around.”

Wingra originally demoed the MR 130 before renting it and, ultimately, purchasing the machine. More recently, Wingra purchased a Hitachi ZX350LC excavator to pair with the MR 130.

“That’s the main machine feeding that Kleemann,” Wise says. “We have a hammer for it, and we can either break boulders for riprap or break concrete that needs to be broken down and hammered.”

The ZX350LC is an upgrade compared to its predecessor, Wise adds.

“Before, we had a [machine] that was too big,” he says. “The bucket was too big to feed the hopper.”

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