The problem doesn’t affect the US$212m restoration of the Utah Capitol, however, where state architect David Hart anticipated a shortage and got his contractors to lock into lower prices with Utah’s only two cement producers more than a year ago.
Concrete prices were only US$25.60 a year ago, according to the Utah Department of Transportation, which tracks prices for basic construction materials -- an index that has jumped sharply over the past two years. The Capitol contractors also locked into lower prices for structural steel, which jumped to $2.29 a pound in December from $1.43 a year earlier.
A recent Utah Geological Survey report found the state had 84 high-calcium limestone quarries or deposits, giving Utah centuries’ worth of cement. But only about a dozen of the large and small works are considered active or ready for mining, said senior state geologist Bryce Tripp, who wrote the 80-plus page report, "High-Calcium Limestone Resources of Utah," published in November, to encourage more mining.
The state’s only cement producers – Holcim operates one plant in Morgan County and Ash Grove Cement runs another in Juab County – can’t keep up with demand in Utah, and a third company is looking to open an operation, said Tripp, who declined to identify the company (abstracted from Deseret News Publishing).
