Kroeker Recycles Fulltime
BY Eagle Crusher Company
It’s no secret that California Highway Standards are some of the strictest in the nation when it comes to recycled asphalt. Now CalTrans has embraced Superpave; Kroeker, Inc., of central California was formed, in part, to help meet Superpave requirements as a natural offshoot of its original excavation and demolition services.
The company started in the mid 1970s as Kroeker Custom Tractor Service, a female-owned enterprise, operated by husband-and-wife team, Joyce Kroeker, president, and Ed Kroeker, vice president. The company performed excavation and demolition, then expanded into demolition and recycling as Kroeker, Inc.
Jeff Kroeker, secretary/treasurer of Kroeker, Inc., said, “We expanded into recycling because the material was there for us to do it and the market was there. Beyond just creating another profit center, which certainly was a business goal, we felt a responsibility to recycle, leading us to become a member of the US Green Building Council, and an active participant in the LEED program.”
Jason Strickland, crushing division manager, continued, “Thirteen or 14 years ago when I started with Kroeker, demolition was all the company was doing. The company was in the demolition business, so it had to do something with the concrete. We were bringing in 50 to 100 loads of concrete a day. Now we’re doing portable rock crushing for a lot of people, a lot of big companies.”
Kroeker, Inc. operates one of Central California’s largest C&D recycling facilities, achieving a recycling rate of more than 85 percent and diverting thousands of tons of debris annually from landfills. A full-time on-site crushing operation is maintained to crush concrete and other aggregate materials into base rock.
Concrete and aggregate comes to Kroeker, Inc.’s 47-acre facility, where it is stockpiled and crushed into California Class II, 3/4-inch minus base rock. The majority of this 3/4-inch minus goes onto California state highways. The company also produces between 300 and 350,000 tons a year of 5/8-inch minus, fines and recycled asphalt for California highway use. Kroeker, Inc., produces California fractionated recycled asphalt pavement (FRAP), as well now that California allows a higher percent in the hot mix, in a 5/8-inch x 3/8-inch and a 3/8-inch minus.
According to Jeff Kroeker, “For all the concrete we bring into our recycling facility, the industry is changing. There’s a lot of demand for on-location aggregate crushing for asphalt production needs, and much of this job-site crushing we’re doing in California is smaller-size jobs—10 to 15,000 tons.
“The very nature of these smaller jobs depends on two, key buzz words—mobilizing and demobilizing—the ability to work the projects using highly portable plants that quickly and easily set up and tear down,” Kroeker further explained.
Helping Kroeker, Inc., make the transition to profitable production on these smaller jobs is the Eagle Crusher E-Plant. It features a triple-deck screening/crushing system on one chassis.
The E-Plant is designed to produce up to five products at one time, including three spec products. Kroeker, Inc., uses it to produce the two FRAP products, the 5/8-inch x 3/8-inch and the 3/8-inch minus, processing both at one time.
Strickland explained, “The E-Plant accepts larger chunks of feed material without us having to break it down first. A large amount of the material goes right to the feeder or screen so the crusher gets less wear and we get higher production. We’re getting 300 tons an hour, all day long, consistently, with the diesel electric engine over a hydraulic, and we’re getting double the tons per hour from what we were using before.”
Strickland continued, “We also have Eagle Crusher 1400 plants, and they have their place, but my biggest issue is moving the big 1400 in for a 10,000-ton job… The E-Plant is the answer for these smaller jobs because it’s so portable. And we’re able to work the E-Plant as a two-man operation, one loader operator and one crusher operator.”
For its larger-sized jobs, Kroeker, Inc., continues to use the Eagle Crusher 1400-45 plants, and on one project site in particular, the company is producing 70,000 tons a month, working six days, 60 hours a week.
This particular project consists of a five-man operation on Kroeker, Inc.’s part, implementing a five-stage process from material delivery to finished spec product. The customer delivers 100 truckloads of concrete daily to its job site, where Kroeker, Inc., is on location to facilitate the remaining stages of the process, as follows.
1. A bulldozer operator moves the concrete to make room for the next day’s concrete drop.
2. An excavator operator separates the larger pieces.
3. A loader operator feeds material into the hopper.
4. A crusher operator facilitates the crushing process and stockpiles spec product.
For a project of that size, additional personnel include a ground-level employee who cleans up spillage and a full time water-truck driver on site to suppress dust and facilitate cleanup.
There’s no doubt the right equipment can make all the difference in the C&D recycling industry today. When Kroeker, Inc., first entered into recycling, Strickland recalled, “We were doing a job in Monterey. That’s where we first bought an Eagle 04 crusher.”
He almost laughed at the situation they faced from unclean material coming in, explaining that they regularly filled two 40-yard roll-off bins per day with metal that their UltraMax® 04 magnet pulled out during processing. “I’m not kidding you…we were pulling out more metal than we were base rock.”
When it comes to equipment, the partnerships and collaboration between equipment manufacturers and recyclers are also key factors in solving industry challenges and creating successful recycling operations. Many of the E-Plant innovations that have helped Kroeker, Inc., increase productivity and lower operating costs are due to the collaboration between the company and Eagle Crusher. Personnel from both companies keep close communication about day-to-day operations in the field, helping keep Eagle Crusher R&D abreast of the challenges faced as new plants are being developed, so they can more definitively meet recyclers’ needs.
Beyond equipment, other factors that make a recycling operation successful include prepping by responsible employees who understand the job-at-hand. Due to the advanced methods, size and capabilities of Kroeker, Inc.’s recycling operation, many government agencies visit for tours and information, as well as public agencies and private citizens to see the recycling first hand.