Terex CRJ 3054 portable jaw crusher preps material for faster processing.
by Jon M. Casey

In December 2012, Ford Motor Company’s land development arm announced that it had sold approximately three fourths of its former Wixom Assembly Plant to Trident Barrow Management, a company within New York based Barrow Development. At the same time, Ford Motor Company continued to retain a 32 acre portion of the original property. With the sale of that 239 acre parcel of land, came the need for the demolition of the existing factory complex that had been sitting shuttered since the plant closure in 2007.

Initially, the former auto assembly plant that once made Lincoln Town Cars, Thunderbirds, Ford GTs and Lincoln Continentals, was demolished by C&D Contractors during 2013. Meanwhile, in fall 2013, Pamar Enterprises, Inc. of New Haven, MI, was called in to recycle designated areas of concrete paving and building foundations that remained on the site. This site prep work was to be completed as quickly as possible so that new construction could begin on the parcels that had been sold to companies who were interested in relocating or opening businesses at this new site. Those companies included General RV of Wixom, who has a new facility under construction on a 31-acre parcel, and Menards Home Improvement who purchased 45 acres with plans for a new home improvement center on a portion of that site with the remainder yet to be developed.

Site work

As we arrived at the Pamar Enterprises, Inc. jobsite, we met up with Nick Krawczyk, processing division supervisor for Pamar, who was overseeing routine maintenance of the onsite portable crushing and screening equipment following a relocation of the equipment from a previous site on the property. The crew was preparing to finish the remainder of the current crushing job, here. Joined by Don Northey, owner of Powerscreen of Michigan, we talked about the progress of this job since Pamar Enterprises, Inc. acquired their new Terex Cedarapids CRJ3054 wheeled portable crusher last fall. It was interesting to hear how the addition of that new unit has helped improve the production rate and profitability for Pamar.

“When we began the job we were relying upon our Powerscreen Pegson tracked impactor as our primary crushing unit,” said Krawczyk. “It didn’t take long to see that with this much rebar in the concrete, and with so much concrete to crush, it would take a lot of time, money and effort to process the concrete debris to remove the rebar, before it could be run through the Pegson impactor. That’s when we called Don Northey, to see what he recommended for the job. Don told us that the Terex Cedarapids jaw crusher was one of the best jaw crushers available anywhere and that the jaw’s design would be helpful to process concrete containing rebar in a much more effective way.”

“Once our company president, Ron Acciavatti, realized the value of adding a new primary crusher, he approved the purchase and Don’s company arranged for the new Terex crusher to be delivered. We have really improved production since that machine arrived. More importantly, we can do our work more safely. The new jaw processes the material rather than with attachments and excavators. That keeps the workers safer,” he said.

“We have seen an improvement of about 30 percent in our production rate,” said Nick. That is because we don’t have as much down time to change out blowbars in the impactor due to wear from the rebar.”

“Now, the CRJ 3054 crushes the raw material, kicks out the rebar, and the product runs up the conveyor to our screen with the 21A material going out to the stockpile,” he said. “From there, the overs come back to the Pegson impactor for processing into 21A as well. We make one size that the construction crews use for fill material for parking lots, sewer installation and as sub base for the other work.”

“More importantly, we can tear down and set up in about three days. Together, the equipment has a footprint of less than one acre. That makes a big difference on some jobs.”

“We have been here about nine months and we have crushed about 140,000 tons of material,” Nick added. “Despite the bad weather, we were able to work throughout the winter. We needed to get the work done so that the new Central RV center could go up.”

“With the timeframe that we had to do the job, we would have really had a problem if we hadn’t had the new jaw crusher. We needed more power and that gave it to us,” he added. “It gave us the capability to do another project here that added another 40,000 tons of crushing. We will be doing another 80,000 tons or so when the Menards project begins.”

Company history

Krawczyk said that he has been working with Pamar Enterprises, Inc. for approximately five years and that he has developed a great relationship with the Acciavatti family, owners of Pamar. Pasquale and Mary Ann Acciavatti founded the company in 1968, under the P&M Contracting banner. Originally, they were a site cleanup company doing grading, seeding, fencing and pavement patching as their primary specialties. Then, in 1972, they incorporated with Pamar Enterprises, Inc., taking on construction site work of all kinds. They added underground utilities contracting and specialize in concrete/asphalt recycling to their available services. Pamar excels in concrete crushing and recycling as demonstrated on this project. For more information on Pamar Enterprises, visit their website at pamarenterprises.com .