When J. Bates & Son Construction needed to separate soil from solid waste, they turned to McCloskey International for a trommelling solution.

Erin Kirkpatrick

 

Police department headquarters for the town of Plymouth, MA was build adjacent to the decades-long closed South Street landfill in the 1980s when it was fashionable to reuse deactivated landfill properties for public use. The facility in recent years has been monitoring increasing levels of methane gas intrusion along with the sinking of the department’s parking lot. Situated on top of a portion of the old town “dump”, the parking area was also determined to be the source of the growing methane problem. The potent methane gas and sinking parking lot made it necessary for the town to take action. Plymouth’s engineering firm estimated that thousands of yards of mixed MSW and gravel located under the parking lot needed to be removed in order to stop gas migration and prevent the parking lot from settling to the point of abandonment. The situation was determined to be severe enough that Town officials went to bid without hesitation and signed the contract for the project.

 

The Key to the Project

  1. Bates and Son Construction is (Clinton, MA) is part of a select handful of independent private contractors in the Northeast with an expertise in landfill construction. New cell construction, liner installation, closures, capping, methane recovery and waste-to-energy projects are all included in the Bates’ resume. With experience dating back to the 1980s in waste management and landfill projects, J. Bates and Son Construction helped write the rules for best practices in their field. When the company was awarded the Plymouth job, they knew, like all past projects, the most important factor was having the experienced team in house to complete the job effectively. The second most important factor was the right equipment to scale the efforts of the J. Bates and Son Construction team.

 

The company’s Project Manager, Chris Czermak, knew the key to the project would be trying to separate sand and soil from the solid waste. Gravel and soils recovered from the excavation received approval to be reused on the project. The separated MSW would be trucked to a nearby landfill for proper disposal in a modern lined cell. According to Czermak, the company hoped to reduce tipping fees for disposal by only having to truck MSW to the new landfill site and reusing as much recovered soil as possible. The process chosen to accomplish this is called tromelling.  J. Bates and Son Construction had used trommels in the past to process topsoil for other projects. However, excavating and processing waste with a trommel from a landfill dating back to the 1970s was a new challenge for the company.

 

Separating Waste from Soils

  1. Bates and Son Construction chose to partner with Rock & Recycling Solutions based in New York State and New England for their trommel requirement. RRS represents McCloskey International (Keene, ON) servicing their line of screening, crushing and material handling equipment since taking on the line in 2000. With more than 30 years of experience building trommels, McCloskey is one of the largest sellers of Trommels in North America with Rock and Recycling Solutions being one of the top McCloskey dealerships in the region to sell trommels.

 

After consulting with RRS Sales Manager, Mike Lanchanski, J. Bates and Son Construction took delivery of a new McCloskey 621REG trommel. At nearly 60,000 pounds and a 21’ long trommel drum, the machine, depending on moisture content, can process between 200 to 300 TPH of topsoil and gravel. In this application however, Lanchanski recommended this bigger trommel, not for production, but in order to keep the material in the drum longer to better separate the waste from the soils.

 

Czermak was impressed with the McCloskey 621 Trommel’s handling of the screening process, as it is the vital part of this project. “It’s separating almost all the dirt from the waste. We are very pleased with that. After Rock & Recycling Solutions helped with setup and operator training, we only had a couple stoppages due mostly with our guys getting used to operating and feeding the machine. It looks like we will hit our numbers on MSW disposal and trucking costs.”

 

The waste removal and disposal portion of the project took five weeks; thousands of yards of landfill waste and soil went through the McCloskey 621. Thankfully for the town and J. Bates and Son Construction, there were no big surprises as is often the case in old landfills. Czermak states, “J. Bates and Son Construction will soon begin the final capping process and the conclusion of another project in a construction industry niche that has become a major source of the company’s growth over the years.”

 

Erin Kirkpatrick is the Marketing Coordinator for Rock and Recycling Solutions (Hopkinton, MA), a full service McCloskey International dealer throughout New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Rock and Recycling Solutions sells and services the full line of McCloskey equipment for the crushing, screening and recycling industries. With a full-time road service crew, three parts and service locations, and knowledgeable sales specialists, Rock and Recycling Solutions is dedicated to exceeding customer’s needs. They offer both new and used equipment for rental and sale as well as a full line of parts for all makes and models. Rock and Recycling Solutions proudly stands behind the superior McCloskey International product and their extensive line of trommel screens, stackers and crushers. They work tirelessly to earn their customer’s business and will always try to exceed their expectations. For more information, contact Rock and Recycling Solutions at (866) 622-3339 or visit www.rockandrecycling.net.

 

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