Developing land tracts for building sites in New York's Adirondack area generally necessitates lots of ground work. That's because rock is to be found as little as 2 to 6 ft. below the surface grade. Rock removal is often necessary for reprofiling the site to make the landscape suitable to build.

In years past, the common method of dealing with rock on sites was to drill, blast, excavate and export it by truck to wherever it could be dumped. If close enough to a quarry or crushing-screening yard, and depending on the quality of the rock excavated, it could be dumped there. In its day that was convenient, for the needed crushed rock was imported from the same quarry to construct the road's subbase, backfill utility trenches and fill below-grade areas.

Exporting/importing rock to job sites by dump trucks is becoming increasingly problematic because diesel-fuel prices have been climbing in recent years, making hauling a sobering cost consideration. The question facing site contractors today is how to deal with the rock-for-aggregates issue economically.

Hauling rock in a typical triaxle dump truck usually means fuel consumption at the rate of 6 mpg or less, depending on stop-go traffic patterns. Not only are crude oil prices hovering around the $100-per-barrel mark, but it is uncertain if oil prices will level off where they are, go lower or even go higher. Such tea leaves can be hard to read.

Of course, portable crushing-screening plants have been on the market for many years. The idea is not new, but now more emphasis is being placed on crushing concrete, brick and asphalt paving on construction/demolition sites. In the past, crushing/screening rock on construction sites was not the main reason most contractors were purchasing portable plants. In recent years, that has changed, for now there is a serious interest by many site-work contractors to keep as much of the excavated rock on site as possible by crushing it and using it as a road base or a general fill.

King for a day

A good example of how the challenge of on-site rock is now being handled can be seen at the Kings Quarters Townhouse building project in Kingsbury, N.Y., where a 145-acre building tract is in a state of site preparation. Phase one is now in progress where 15 three-unit townhouses will be built. Three more phases of building will follow, once the first phase is completed.

By carefully watching Fintec portable crushing equipment work, one operator made the decision to purchase a unit for his company.

There are two site contractors active on the project using portable crushing plants. Both contractors say the crushing part of their site work is central to the work performed. To hold costs to a minimum, the project owner, CW Custom Builders LLC, does not want to import or export any more stone than is necessary.

One of the contractors, Adirondack Portable Custom Crushing of Warrensburg, is a specialist in on-site and in-the-pit, custom crushing/screening of rock. The company does work as far away as North Carolina. The southern work is carried out during the severe winter months that typically hit upper New York state.

All pit crushing/screening is carried out in Adirondack's own stone-pit facility or in some of its customers' pits. This past year, Adirondack crushed stone in five different pits. An older portable crushing-screening system is used, but there is a downside to moving it from site to site because it requires five trucks and two days to move it only 30 miles, and it takes the same time and labor to move it to another pit.

The owner of the business, Jim McGee, started as a construction-equipment repairman 20 years ago, and in 1998 he started his own custom crushing/screening business.

With his comprehensive knowledge of crushing-screening equipment, McGee is not depending on the older portable equipment for doing on-site projects. To the contrary, he has access to what he considers some of the best designed and performing portable track plants available. In his opinion, one of the best is from Fintec Crushing & Screening Ltd., owned by the Sandvik Mining and Construction Group of Sandvik AB.

He is using Fintec crushing equipment for the big Kings Quarters Townhouse project. All of the equipment is being rented from the local Fintec dealer, Capital Equipment Inc. McGee says that he chooses Fintec not just because of the quality equipment, but also because Capital Equipment Inc. gives outstanding service at competitive prices.