Chuck Stone Jr., vice president of H.I. Stone & Son Inc., Southbury, Conn., enjoys a challenge — and the current project for the company is appropriately described that way.
In April 2009 H.I. Stone & Son began work on a 25-acre site which is expected to take five years to complete at a cost of $25 million. The site is being transformed into a level pad for a retail or “big box” store to be constructed upon. But before shoppers are able enter the new store H.I. Stone will excavate and process 2 million tons (1,814,369 t) of rock.
What will become of all this rock? It will be sold at the company’s retail outlet in Southbury or at the actual quarry site. Processed rock ranging in size from 3/8 in. to 1 in. (.9 to 2.5 cm) will be available as well as stone dust. If screened fill is needed by a customer that also will be available.
H.I. Stone & Son has been in business for more than 60 years, founded by Chuck Stone Jr.’s grandfather who was an excavator and general contractor. Today, Stone Jr. runs the company, with his father, Chuck Stone Sr. and his brother Jeremy. In addition to the core excavation and general contracting business the company has expanded into the transportation industry. There are 50 employees, 100 pieces of equipment and 24 tractor trailers and tri-axle trucks.
Eight employees are working on the Waterbury site with approximately 14 pieces of equipment at their disposal, all which were purchased from The W.I. Clark Company of Wallingford, Conn. A unit of primary importance to this job is the CEC 30x42 primary jaw crusher recently purchased from W.I. Clark.
H. I. Stone is using the CEC 30x42 to reduce rock from 24 in. down to 6 in. (61 to 15 cm) minus and smaller. The jaw feeds into the CEC Super Cone (SC) 300 on site, which further reduces the rock into 1.25 in. (3.2 cm) or less and then sends it over a series of five decks of screens, producing the five different products that H.I. Stone sells. The machine processes about 250 to 275 tons (226 to 249 t) per hour.
“The machines are performing very well and meeting all of our expectations,” said Stone Jr. “CEC has been great to work with. The high-speed Super Cone allows you to make a cubicle product, which meets the requirements by the State of Connecticut and the service at W.I. Clark is great.”
Chuck Stone Sr. added “The machine is everything that CEC and W.I. Clark said it was and they did everything they said they would do.”
H.I. Stone and W.I. Clark have been doing business for 10 years. Carl Roderick, the W.I. Clark sales representative for upper New Haven and Fairfield County, has been with the company for 14 years.
“We took on this line a couple years ago and it has been a great addition to our line of products,” said Roderick. “CEC conveyors and plants are entirely made by CEC in one plant. They handle the engineering and they are all custom-designed to the customer’s needs. CEC will design a plant for your application. A rep travels out to the site, speaks with the contractor, and then goes to the CEC facility in Oregon to create the product. The contractor is then invited out to Oregon to watch a portion of the machine be built,” Roderick explained.
H.I. Stone Company’s CEC machine took about eight weeks to manufacture and deliver. It has been customized with upgraded belting, increased lining in shoots for hard rock application and increased impact beds.
W.I. Clark’s equipment and service continue to support the hard-working H.I. Stone crews who also build athletic fields. They recently completed building a municipal stadium in Waterbury and currently are constructing athletic fields for both Eastern Connecticut and Central Connecticut State University.
These big jobs are a challenge, but Stone Jr. said, “All in all, it’s a nice challenge.” CEG
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