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Hi, my name is Mike Emry, manager of the Rock Island crushing plant for Wenatchee Sand and Gravel . These jars show the kinds of rocks we sort and sell – 280,000 tons each year! Let’s take a tour!. Here are all the sizes of rocks we prepare. They are a main ingredient in cement and asphalt.
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Hi, my name is Mike Emry, manager of the Rock Island crushing plant for Wenatchee Sand and Gravel. These jars show the kinds of rocks we sort and sell – 280,000 tons each year! Let’s take a tour! Here are all the sizes of rocks we prepare. They are a main ingredient in cement and asphalt.
We are located along the Columbia River in the town of Rock Island. Long ago during the Ice Age Floods, river waters dropped many layers of sand and gravel here- over 100 feet thick!. Now, we dig it up. As we dig, the holes fill with groundwater and form ponds.
This is the view from my office window. The big machine is our Excavator. Let’s go take a closer look. The city of Rock Island owns all the land here. In the future, this will become a park with fishing ponds.
The excavator is so big we need two pictures to see it all. The cables lower and raise a huge excavator bucket into the pond. Other cables extend out over the water and connect to a tower on the other side of the pond. Cables Excavator bucket Excavator
Next, we use screens to sort the rocks by size. Conveyor belts move rocks to the hoppers that hold the screens. Hoppers collect rocks that are all the same size. conveyor belt hopper
A loader fills a truck with the size of rock needed by the customer. • Sands are used on icy roads in winter • Small pebbles are used on playgrounds • All sizes of pebbles are used to make cement for sidewalks & buildings • Large pebbles are used for landscaping as ground cover.
We can supply 10 dump trucks per hour! • Trucks deliver sand and gravel to Wenatchee, where it is mixed with cement (powdered limestone) and sold as concrete. • People buy many different sizes of sand and gravel.
A concrete mixer is filled with wet cement • Concrete is a mixture of sand, gravel, cement, and water. • Wet cement will harden in less than one hour, so it must be delivered and poured quickly.
Stop and think: How many different ways have sand and gravel been used here?
We all use cement sidewalks, roads, buildings, and bridges every day. Sand and gravel make it all possible! • Next time you drive by Rock Island, look out your car window at the ponds. You’ll be able to tell your family all about how sand and gravel is mined here, in our valley!