Installing the new barrel and binder at Blaise Farm Quarry represents an another big step along our ‘Pathway to Quality’ for Gallagher Aggregates.
This year has seen major improvements at both our quarry sites, but the biggest single upgrade is the new barrel and binder we’ve installed at Blaise Farm. This is the biggest installation of its kind in the UK.
This £5 million investment in new fixed plant will boost capacity and standardise our aggregate production in the long-term, and replaces the mobile equipment we’ve used in the past. It’s also one of the main beneficiaries of the large-scale electrification programme we’ve carried out at our Blaise Farm and Hermitage Quarries this year.
The barrel uses a trommel screen to sort virgin material from the quarry into good-quality crushed rock and hardcore. The waste fines from the cleaning process can be used for low-level restoration work. The binder then screens and separates the cleaned material into different sizes.
The new plant can handle 6,000 tonnes of material a day; once it’s fully up and running, it will allow us to process and sell up to 500,000 tonnes of Type 1 sub-base and graded hardcore per year.
“The investment in our new barrel and binder is an important part of what we term our ‘pathway to quality’. As well as increasing capacity, it works faster than our previous mobile plant and delivers a cleaner, more consistent product,” says Gallagher Aggregates Managing Director Sean Connor. “It’s designed and built by a specialist company, Stelex Construction Equipment Ltd, based in Shropshire: this is the latest in a long line of projects we’ve done with them over the past 30 years. We’re confident it’s going to make a big difference to the quality and service we can offer our customers.”
