Located on the border of New South Wales and Victoria, Rich River Asphalt’s (RRA) new state-of-the-art asphalt manufacturing plant has a strategic vantage point from which to tackle the local market.
Ray Lykles, Asphalt Manager, says the plant’s location in the Victoria/NSW border town of Echuca poses a few challenges, as both states require different material specifications.
That, however, is also one of the site’s main advantages.
The company’s new ALmix 60CF/100 duo drum asphalt plant allows RRA to cater to these two markets with all the latest American and European plant features as far as technology goes.
In mid-2013, RRA approached Desmond Tan, Managing Director of ALmix Asia, and two other asphalt plant manufacturers to determine what configurations and types of plants were on offer.
After deliberations, the ALmix plant was chosen. This was mainly for ALmix Asia’s flexibility to include options and specific requirements requested by RRA.
The plant was shipped to Australia from Malaysia in February this year and the site was operational by June.
The plant has the capability to produce asphalt with multiple additives, which are mixed in a separate drum to the drying drum. It is capable of producing hot-mix, warm-mix, cold-mix and recycled asphalt material.
The plant’s environmentally focused counter-flow drum yields quality mix without wastage and emits a lower exhaust temperature.
The system reduces asphalt vapour in the main air stream, which helps the operation meet stringent national environmental standards on emission control. This is achieved by the use of a bag house, which contains all of the emissions.
Mr. Lykles says the more modern asphalt plants are flexible enough to produce all kinds of mixes these days, and RRA’s ALmix plant can do them with ease.
“It has easier system controls to accommodate ‘on-the-run mix’ changes and we can do a few more things with it, particularly with the different types of mixes we can produce,” he says.
Mr. Lykles states that ALmix Asia has given them great support and is always on-hand to assist when it comes to using the plant’s system controls.
The plant itself is very compact and is contained within 800 square metres. It is now complete with a testing laboratory for quality control, research and development and product design.
With these capabilities, it’s no surprise that the RRA production facility and new site has hit the ground running and meeting local demand.
“An asphalt plant existed in Echuca in the 2000s, but was relocated,” says Mr. Lykles.
The plant is currently supplying private contractors, local councils and shires, and road authorities in the area. Feedback from the customers has been great on both product and service.
Mr. Lykles says that RRA is looking forward to 2016, having just being awarded a major contract in the local area.
He concludes that RRA’s new ALmix plant, with all its technological capabilities, gives them the confidence to tackle the local market head-on.