By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
MITCHELL — Cement is to concrete as flour is to bread, and that critical ingredient of modern infrastructure, created in the kilns of Lehigh Cement in Mitchell since 1902, has been remaking the world’s landscape for generations. Now, Lawrence County residents and visitors are beginning to catch their first glimpses of what will be the company’s fourth plant in the city of approximately 4,000 people as construction begins to go vertical with the inflation of a dome capable of holding 140,000 tons of cement clinker as well as the erection of a 170-foot silo made of 1,900 cubic yard of concrete. Among other features still to come is a 416-foot pre-heater tower.
The new plant
“The investment will be more than $600 million,” noted Tracy Crowther, manager of the plant that’s now part of Lehigh Hanson and the worldwide Heidelberg Cement organization. The undertaking is Lehigh Hanson’s biggest-ever expansion in North America and will create the firm’s largest plant on the continent.
The groundbreaking on the project took place on Oct. 8, 2019, following years of development, but it wasn’t long before COVID-19’s arrival put the brakes on the endeavor. While behind-the-scenes work in planning and engineering continued, it was expected that most other activities would be paused for six months to a year. However, September 2020 brought the announcement of an accelerated push. Now, Crowther said, the new plant is anticipated to be operational by the first quarter of 2023.
“I’ve been excited to see the accelerated progress that is being made on this transformational project,” U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth noted during his tour of the project. “Lehigh has made a significant commitment to the town of Mitchell, and I am proud to have a world-class facility that will create such a long-term benefit to this region.”
The new plant’s single kiln for pyroprocessing raw mix into cement clinker will replace the three kilns currently in use at the old plant. (Two of the pieces of equipment date back to the 1960s, and the third kiln was added in 1976.) Total cement output is expected to increase from the present 2,000 tons per day to more than 7,000 tons per day. In addition, thanks to today’s more efficient pre-heater technology, Crowther said the new operation will also be more environmentally friendly.
”This plant will reduce CO2 emissions over the current production methods, and that is saying a lot because that is going to be something that is increasingly more important over time,” U.S. Sen. Mike Braun said during his visit to the site, “because it will make the process more efficient, and that means they keep themselves relevant in the long run in a very competitive industry.”
The logistics of construction
Crowther said there are roughly 300 contractors on site today. But, he added, “It’s really early in the process.” In all, construction of the new plant will require approximately 1,000 workers.
Another undeniable sign of progress is truck traffic. Approximately 80 oversized loads will make their way to the site this summer after being offloaded from barges in Jeffersonville. Along with those giant shipments, the routine arrivals of smaller items and structural steel mean 10 to 20 trucks roll into Mitchell on a “typical day.”
“It’s been great working with the City of Mitchell,” Crowther said. He noted Lehigh entered into a lease with the city to make use of space in the nearby industrial park as a lay-down zone and for the storage of other equipment.
Employment and future development
More than tripling production at the new plant will require a larger workforce. Crowther said employment will likely rise by approximately 50 full-time workers from today to top out just in excess of 170. And getting the plant’s increased output where it needs to go will mean more rail and truck traffic leaving Mitchell. “We support terminals in Kentucky, Ohio and Indianapolis out of our location,” Crowther noted.
A secondary benefit of the project, according to Lawrence County Economic Growth Council Executive Director Shance Sizemore, is that its completion will leave behind lots in the industrial park that are more attractive for development. Readying the site for deliveries and storage during the construction process included leveling the land off and bringing in crushed stone, Sizemore explained.
Lehigh’s roots in Mitchell
The company then known as Lehigh Portland Cement built its plant in Mitchell just a few years after the firm’s own founding in Pennsylvania. Making the Mitchell site so attractive were the presence of rich deposits of limestone raw material near the intersection of two major rail lines to bring in coal and ship out finished product.
The company owns approximately 2,000 acres of land around the plant, and all of the limestone for local production still comes from its own quarry operations there. In the early days, Crowther said, more than 1,000 workers quarried the raw material with hammers, loading the stone into carts that were pulled by mules. In a nod to that history, the plant still displays some of those carts.
The original factory was located to the west of the current site of operations. All that remains today is a large meadow. Lehigh Field is the place to be every year for July 4 fireworks, and the company also donated some of the land that’s now a part of neighboring Spring Mill State Park.
Crowther believes the company’s investment of more than half a billion dollars in its new plant is an exciting assurance for the community that “the very long, rich history with the City of Mitchell” is a relationship future generations will continue to enjoy.