White Rock Quarries is fully committed
to supplying aggregates for Florida's booming construction industry.
It showed this commitment -- quite
literally -- for hundreds of business and community guests at a January
demonstration of its latest high-capacity production tool: a massive dragline
featuring a 105-cu.yd. bucket.
That's 105 cubic yards. Holding 100 tons
of blasted rock. Hoisted by a 275-ft. boom swiveling on a 58-ft. base every 75
seconds to dump another bucketful. At two shifts a day, that's 24 million tons
of limestone per year.
It's Florida's largest-capacity
dragline, a Marion 8200 relocated from New Mexico. The 6,750,000-lb. behemoth
was disassembled and shipped aboard 175 semi-trucks -- some up to 13-axle,
50-wheel vehicles -- for reassembly in Miami. Thirty-five technicians worked
10-hour shifts, 7 days a week for a year to complete the task.
Up and running since November, the
dragline makes its way around White Rock by "walking" seven feet at a time on
12-ft. by 60-ft. "shoes."
The machine runs on electricity,
requiring its own power substation and an inches-thick "extension cord" to
operate the 14 onboard motors doing all the hoisting, swinging, dragging and
propelling. Together, the motors generate more than 14,500 horsepower.
Guests at the grand showing
donned hard hats, shuttled to an active pit and climbed aboard the
dragline to experience several digging cycles, before returning to
enjoy a full-course catered luncheon.
Also enjoying the occasion were executives from North
American Mining, which owns and operates the dragline under an agreement with
White Rock.
