Martinsburg plant celebrates major upgrade

On 5 June, Essroc’s Martinsburg cement plant will be holding an open house following the dedication of its new US$ 500 million modernization and upgrading project in Berkeley County, USA.

Essroc, part of the Italcementi Group, purchased this plant from Capitol Cement in 2002.The new plant has the ability to manufacture 2 million tpa of cement and will be shipping products via CSX Transpotation and Winchester & Western’s railways. The company has upgraded its connection to CSX and plans to build a rail spur from the plant to Winchester & Western’s railroad’s track west of US 11.

Upgrades to the plant included an enclosed limestone storage dome, cement and concrete laboratories, a five-stage preheater-precalciner, kiln, clinker storage silo, two vertical finish mills, control room/administration building and a new customer entrance via New York Avenue. Access roads at the 849 acre plant have also been paved.

The upgrade project involved the conversion from the wet to the dry process in which production switched from three kiln lines to one. Production has been increased from 2500 to 5500 tpa. Plant Manager, Paul Biel has said that the new spur to Winchester & Western will be built on land that Essroc has already purchased and that the two rail connections together will enable distribution of the company’s products up to a 500 mile radius.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/24052010/martinsburg_plant_celebrates_major_upgrade/