Features

Maintaining fixed concrete plants can be expensive, particularly when customers are spread over a wide geographical area but volumetric trucks are helping to overcome this issue. The economic downturn has hit all parts of the construction industry and the ready mixed concrete market is no exception. Although the prospects are now improving, many companies used the recession as an opportunity to close ageing concrete plants or ones where customers were too widely spread and rationalise their assets.

Delivery of high quality concrete depends on close control of the measuring and mixing process and recent work at Bahrain-based Delmon Readymix's plant demonstrates. Meeting the design parameters of ready mixed concrete both at the point of dispatch and delivery is essential but this important target is not always achieved. Bahrain-based Delmon Readymix approached Command Alkon to find a solution that addressed this issue to reduce the number of loads rejected on site and to reduce the slump variability of

Installation of an automated monitoring system at Marmor Sezana's Lipica II Quarry in Slovenia has helped improve safety. Ensuring the safety of access routes to quarries is essential to protect not just employees and equipment but also ongoing productivity. Monitoring equipment can play a key role in tracking rock stability and remotely operated systems are allowing round the clock checks to be carried out. With a steep-sided 60m deep quarry providing the only access to the underground mine at Marmor Sezan

Wearing protective equipment cannot prevent accidents but it plays a key role in reducing the severity of injuries. The ultimate aim of almost every quarry operator is to achieve a zero accident rate but unfortunately not every site manages this aim and this is where personal protective equipment becomes essential.

Investment in crushing and screening equipment is helping to progress work on a new highway development in Oman. Road improvements currently underway in Oman promise to strengthen the road network and reduce journey times significantly when completed later this year. The new 32km Salalah Bypass will divert traffic away from the city centre to meet existing and future traffic growth.

Investment in new equipment is taken very seriously at the UK's moons hills quarry but safety has the top priority when it comes to specification. John Wainwright's Moons Hill Quarry, in Somerset, UK, produces around 750,000tonnes of material each year, including 500,000tonnes of roadstone and surface dressing chippings.

More action is needed when it comes to recycling of building materials in Europe, according to the European Quality Association for recycling. Achieving true sustainability and meeting regional targets means there is a need for higher levels of recycling when it comes to building materials in Europe. That was the main message delivered by a recent conference - Recycling of Building Materials in Europe - organised by the European Quality Association for Recycling (EQAR).