Carri Scharf Materials Co. Designs New Lincoln, Ill., Plant

Joe Scharf did not enter the aggregates business through engineering school or plant management. He started with a truck.

On Dec. 1, 1981, Scharf bought his first truck and trailer and launched what would become Carri Scharf Trucking. By the early 1990s, he had grown the business into a 30 truck operation hauling aggregates across central Illinois for road builders, home builders, contractors and ready mix producers.

"I hauled out of just about every gravel pit and rock quarry in the middle of Illinois," Joe Scharf president and founder of Carri Scharf Materials Co. told Construction Equipment Guide. "I thought, how tough can it be to be in the gravel business?"

That exposure led to his first gravel pit purchase in Eureka, Ill., in 1993, and the purchase of his first aggregate plant. The Eureka site lasted three years before reserves were exhausted but it marked the beginning of Carri Scharf Materials Co. as an aggregate producer.

Since then, the company has expanded steadily across Illinois and Wisconsin with production sites in Heyworth, Danville and Bloomington, Ill., along with frac sand operations in Sparta, Wis., and recycled concrete and asphalt operations in Bloomington.

"All together, we're sitting on about 300 million tons of reserves right now," Scharf said. "Companywide, we produce about 5 million tons annually."

Newest Operation Comes Online in Lincoln

The company's latest development is a greenfield aggregate site in Lincoln, Ill., constructed on former farmland near the confluence of Salt Creek and Kickapoo Creek. First production at the site began in November.

"When we bought this, it was a corn field and soybean field," Scharf said. "But geologically, this whole Kickapoo Creek area has a lot of sand and gravel reserves."

Site selection relied heavily on geology and mapping rather than surface appearance.

"If you look at the state of Illinois, the waterways are what make the deposits," he said. "The glaciers pushed all this sand and gravel down through here and filled the low spots."

Plant Design Driven By Experience

Rather than purchasing a standard plant layout, Scharf designed the Lincoln facility around how material would flow during both startup and long term production. His approach was shaped by decades of operating plants and learning through trial and error.

Unlike the company's Danville operation, which is dredge-fed, Lincoln is Carri Scharf Materials' only dry-feed plant. At Lincoln, loaders excavate material directly from the deposit and dump it into a hopper that feeds the plant, rather than using a dredge to vacuum material from an underwater pit.

Beneath roughly 15 ft. of sand and gravel lies a substantial limestone deposit that requires a dry pit to access.

"Dredge is the most efficient way to mine gravel," Scharf said. "But not here — we have to have a dry hole to go after the limestone."

At startup, the Lincoln wash plant processes blended material rather than fully excavated virgin deposits. An onsite gravel plant utilizes high frequency dry screening to produce road base and fill sand, often called "dirty products," which are then cleaned and classified through the wash plant.

As excavation advances and the pit opens fully, Scharf expects the product mix to shift.

"Right now, we're making more sand than coarse aggregate," Scharf said. "Once we get down in the hole running all virgin material, we'll probably be about 40 percent coarse aggregate and 60 percent sand."

Plant Specs, Production Capacity

The Lincoln operation is anchored by a stationary Astec Model 1830S washing and classifying plant. The system features an 8-ft. x 20-ft. primary incline screen; a heavy duty classifying tank; an 8-ft. x 20-ft. secondary screen, dewatering screws; and high capacity Turbine pumps, all designed for sustained, high volume production.

"This plant here will easily do 1,000 tons an hour," Scharf said. "I'd say we're probably in the 750 ton an hour range right now."

Finished products include 3/8 in., 5/8 in. and 1½ in. coarse aggregate, along with fine aggregate for use in asphalt and concrete mixes.

"Anything under 3/8 is considered fine aggregate," Scharf said. "That's what gives concrete and asphalt its texture."

The system is designed to scale up production without altering its core layout as excavating progresses deeper into the deposit.

At full development, the 850 acre Lincoln site contains an estimated 110 million tons of sand, gravel and limestone. The nearest limestone quarries are roughly 90 mi. away in multiple directions.

"We get calls all the time asking how soon we can open up the limestone," Scharf said.

Partnering With Finkbiner

A long standing partnership with Finkbiner Equipment Company has supported Carri Scharf Materials' growth since the early 1990s. The relationship began in 1993, when Scharf purchased his first sand and gravel plant and was introduced to Clyde Robison of Finkbiner, who has since served as a trusted equipment and engineering partner.

"He's the most knowledgeable person I've ever been around in the aggregates industry," Scharf said. "He's never done me wrong on any of these purchases."

Scharf credits the partnership with simplifying long term operations through standardized equipment, responsive parts support and a single point of accountability, helping minimize downtime as the company continues to expand.

Custom Engineering, CAD Collaboration

Working closely together, the Scharf and Robison collaborated on plant designs and custom engineering solutions tailored to Scharf's specific material characteristics and production goals. That collaboration has included direct engagement with manufacturers' engineering and CAD teams, allowing plant components and material flow systems to be designed and optimized before installation.

Rather than selecting off the shelf designs, Scharf traveled to Astec facilities to collaborate directly with engineers using CAD.

"We could sit down with their CAD people and build exactly what we wanted," Scharf said.

That collaboration led to several custom features including a velocity box originally built for its dredge feed plants by Scharf in his fabrication shop and later to be adopted as a standard Astec design.

"We built our own first, then had them design it on CAD," he said. "Now it's standard, and it works."

Electrical Controls Built In House

One of the most distinctive features of the Lincoln plant is its electrical control system. The entire electrical motor control center that operates the plant was designed and built by Scharf himself.

"All this electrical stuff? Yeah, I built all of this," Scharf said. "This trailer runs everything you're seeing out here."

Designing the controls internally simplified startup troubleshooting and ensured the system mirrored how crews operate day to day.

Standardization Improves Uptime

The Lincoln plant shares common components with other Carri Scharf Materials Co. plants, allowing parts to be stocked and shared across locations.

"Now that we have four plants with basically the same components, we can use the same parts here or in Danville, Heyworth or Bloomington," Scharf said.

According to Robison, Scharf's approach proves that larger plants do not require larger crews if they are designed effectively.

"He proved you can run a big plant with the same number of people as a small plant," Robison said. "He can get more tonnage out of his plants than anybody."

As production continues to ramp up in Lincoln, the plant reflects a long standing goal.

"This plant is built to produce," Scharf said. "That's always been the goal."

For more information, visit finkbinerequipment.com, astecindustries.com and carrischarf.com. CEG