Essroc nears completions of project
As officials with the Essroc cement manufacturer wrap up a three-year, US$500m transformation in the state’s Eastern Panhandle, one major task remains: paving the elaborate system of roadways that traverse the facility’s 870-acre campus.
With construction of a new operation line and several new buildings finished on the site, the project is 95 per cent complete, according to plant manager Paul Biel, who joined the management team of the plant in 2005, three years after Essroc purchased it from Capitol Cement.
"Finding your way around the plant is still difficult," Biel said. "We change the roads around literally every day as we close buildings and open new ones and deal with all the construction. Logistics-wise, things have been a little complicated. But we’re almost done, and there hasn’t been one minute that we haven’t served our customers."
The Martinsburg site is part of the Italcementi Group.
Once a new entrance, parking lots and connecting roads are in place in Martinsburg, Biel said he hopes to host an open house for the community to unveil what he describes as the company’s most modern cement plant.
"We’re the flagship," said the 54-year-old New York native. "We’ve put into place every modern technology here so that we’re absolutely state of the art in every way possible." Published under Cement News
