For Town & Country Paving, a family-owned business in De Motte, Indiana, the decision to use recycled asphalt product was a matter of survival. Buying an Eagle Crusher E Plant to assist the recycling process, however, was an economic decision that keeps paying off.
Until 2008, the company made asphalt in a batch plant from the early 1970s, said Rodney Urbano, VP and general manager. “We were losing larger jobs because we couldn’t incorporate recycled asphalt product into our asphalt. We realized other companies were producing their raw materials 15 or 20 percent cheaper than we could.”
Town & Country purchased a modern drum mixer asphalt plant that allowed them to recycle asphalt product. They had already accumulated a large stockpile of used asphalt from repaving jobs, but the old screening plant they had couldn’t handle it, so they hired a company to crush asphalt for them. That company brought in an E Plant, and the Urbano family was impressed with its performance. “We decided it would be more cost-effective to buy our own crusher,” Rodney said. Town & Country purchased the E plant after meeting with Columbus Equipment Company Environmental Division sales rep Jesse Garber and John Powell, Team Eagle regional sales rep. “I know Jesse sells a lot of brands, and I was impressed that instead of trying to convince us he knows everything about Eagle crushers, he brought John, who knows the machine inside out,” Urbano said.
The Urbanos quickly found a second use for the E-plant—crushing broken concrete. Town & Country charges contractors a tipping fee and crushes the concrete into a compactible aggregate that meets INDOT specifications for a base for roads and parking lots. They also sell the product to other contractors.
“We started out trying to stay competitive, but it turned out to be a nice benefit for environmental reasons, and because of the tipping fees and aggregate sales,” he noted. The Urbanos also sell the rebar they remove from concrete as scrap, producing more income.
Since buying the crusher, Town & Country has easily worked down its stockpile of used asphalt and concrete. The E Plant is so productive that operators don’t run it at full speed when crushing asphalt “because we can’t feed it fast enough” with a 5.5-yard bucket, Urbano said. He estimates the crusher processes 130 tons of concrete an hour.
The E-plant is designed to sift out fine pieces of asphalt before crushing, and that keeps the screens from getting gummed up, Urbano said. He has been pleased with the consistency of the material the plant produces, and “it has outperformed anything we could imagine in handling the rebar.”
Town & Country had a warranty issue shortly after the plant was installed, and “Columbus Equipment and Team Eagle were here immediately, even though it was super cold. They took care of the issue. They didn’t patch the problem part, they replaced it. I could not have been more satisfied with how they handled the problem,” Urbano said.
Town & Country was started in 1982 by the late Tom Burns, who drove around in his pickup looking for driveway paving jobs. One of his five stepsons—the Urbano brothers—was usually with him. Today, those five still work for the company. Mike is personnel director, Carmen is the mechanic, John is paving crew superintendent, and Dan is asphalt plant operator. During the paving season, they have more than 30 employees.
Town & Country works for INDOT, counties and municipalities, and is a subcontractor for bridge builders and general contractors.
Embracing recycled asphalt and acquiring the Eagle crusher was a big decision for the company, but the Urbanos did the necessary research … and now they are reaping the rewards.
