If there are two men in Florida who know equipment, those two men are Harvey and Tim Youngquist, the founders of Youngquist Brothers Inc.

In 1971, straight out of high school, the brothers established their own drilling business. Working alone, they did it all –– including performing the work and repairing the equipment.

Youngquist Brothers was incorporated in 1977, and Harvey and Tim expanded their work from home water wells to large agricultural water supplies, from several hundred feet deep to thousands of feet deep.

Over time, the brothers acquired and built additional equipment not commonly used in well drilling. Their years of experience helped them achieve the title of the largest deep injection well driller in United States.

Going beyond well drilling, Harvey and Tim decided to use their expertise and take advantage of developing markets. They decided to branch out into the residential construction and mining businesses. Their projects include developments in Mont Belvieu, TX; a condominium project at the foot of the Sierra de Mijas Mountains in Spain; and, most recently, a limestone aggregate quarry in Southwest Florida.

Since January, Youngquist Brother Rock has been mining limestone aggregate in Fort Myers. Florida ranks second nationally in production and fourth in consumption of crushed stone –– limestone and dolostone.  The majority of the stone that is mined in Florida is used for road construction. 

To move the massive amount of material at the quarry, Harvey Youngquist sought the help of Jerry Mariani and Dean Bengford, both of LB Smith Inc., who he has been working with since 1992.

For the project, Harvey purchased seven Volvo L220E front-end loaders, a Volvo A40D articulated hauler and an L70 loader.

“We’ve got the Volvo loaders spec’d out with heavy-duty counter-weights and L5 tires,” said Harvey. “We also have large capacity buckets, giving us two scoops to the truck.”

Mariani noted, “When we were deciding on equipment, we started out with the bucket and worked backwards. Harvey wanted to be able to two-pass load these trucks.”

At the site, the Volvo equipment is loading the material, feeding the crushers with backhoes and removing overburden, noted Harvey. The larger loaders are transporting the base rock used in asphalt production.

“All the loaders are outfitted with a Loadrite scale,” said Mariani. “When the trucks come into the facility, the scanner inside of the truck tells the loader operator how much rock to dump into the truck. The truck leaves the pile within 1 to 2 percent of the target weight.”

Also on site is a Liebherr 994 Litronic hydraulic excavator, supplied by LB Smith.

The relationship between the Youngquist brothers and Mariani is always growing.

“I’ve had a good experience with them since 1992. If we have a problem, if something goes down, we get 24-hour-a-day service, seven days a week,” noted Harvey.

LB Smith is the largest Volvo Construction Equipment dealer in North America with 31 branches located in 10 states.

The Youngquist Brothers’ Fort Myers quarry is located at 1540 Alico Road.

For more information, call Youngquist Brothers Inc. at 239/489-4444.

For more information on LB Smith, call its Fort Myers branch at 239/481-3302 or visit www.lbsmith.com.

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