As one of the largest distributors of construction aggregates in the New York City and Long Island market, New York Sand & Stone delivers its products to various locations throughout the metropolitan area.
The company’s primary location is at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where ocean going vessels discharge their 50,000-ton (45,359 t) cargo through the use of a self-unloading boom conveyor. This allows the ship to unload in approximately 36 hours.
New York Sand & Stone usually receives these shipments each week. Typically, each ship is loaded with three different aggregate types depending on the company’s current needs.
As the loads are delivered, New York Sand & Stone uses a fleet of loaders to stockpile the various types of aggregate according to size.
The aggregate types primarily consist of .75-in. (1.9 cm) stone, three-eighth-in. (1 cm) stone, .25-in. (.6 cm) stone and fine screening materials.
Each week, three Komatsu WA500 rubber-tired loaders are responsible for loading trucks and re-stockpiling the 50,000 tons (45,359 t) of aggregate that are delivered to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Each Komatsu loader operates a minimum of 10 hours each day. When the boats are unloading, the Komatsus operate 24 hours a day.
Under these extreme working conditions, Komatsus do not buckle under the pressure. Each machine accumulates approximately 5,000 hours of use each year. To keep the fleet fresh, each Komatsu is replaced after three years of operation.
According to Tom Dooley, general manager of New York Sand & Stone, these Komatsu loaders are practically trouble-free.
“All of them work hard hours, day in and day out,” said Dooley. “[They] are equipped with a seven-yard bucket, which they use to stockpile the materials in piles approximately 30 feet high. A feature of the Komatsu that we particularly appreciate is their ease and simplicity of operation.”
When operating these machines during a 24-hour shift, multiple operators rotate using the same machine.
“It has been our experience that the Komatsu design allows for a very easy transition from one operator to another,” said Dooley. “Believe me, when you’re operating a loader at the top of a 30-foot stockpile, you want the operators to feel comfortable and confident.”
In addition to distributing aggregate, New York Sand & Stone also provides trucking for the delivery of its materials through a leasing agreement with Hill-Wick Trucking.
The total storage capacity for the company’s Brooklyn Navy Yard location is 75,000 tons (68,039 t).
With so much relying on the equipment and with frequent replacement, dependability is the key factor when deciding on both the brand and equipment dealer.
“It [reliability] is the biggest reason why we continue to purchase our Komatsu loaders from Edward Ehrbar Inc.,” added Dooley. “We rarely have any difficulty with these machines at all, and on the occasion that we do, Ehrbar is there to take care of our needs immediately.
“When we make that kind of investment, we expect to get our money’s worth, and Ehrbar has not let us down,” he continued. “When we moved into the New York market, we started out doing business principally with Ehrbar because of their reputation. And they’ve lived up to that reputation.”
About New York Sand & Stone
New York Sand & Stone is a partnership between two companies — Amboy Aggregates Inc., located in South Amboy, NJ, and New York Sand. Amboy Aggregates is equally owned by Ralph Clayton & Sons in Lakewood, NJ, and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. in Oak Brook, IL.
New York Sand is owned by two private entrepreneurs, John DeRosa and Randy Waterman, and Florida Rock Industries.
The company was created by acquisition in 1998 and is now one of the key suppliers of construction aggregates in the New York City market. New York Sand & Stone LLC maintains the largest supply of crushed stone within the five boroughs of New York City.
The quarry is located in Port Bayside, New Brunswick, Canada, and is a 2-million-ton (1.8 million t) per-year granite quarry. It has been certified for friction aggregate by the New York State Department of Transportation.
The company is very proud of the growth it has shown during its relatively short history in the New York City market.
“We like to call ourselves the city quarry,” said Dooley. “We have a very small geographic area [approximately 4 acres] in which to conduct a giant job.”
“[However], in a short period of time [approximately eight years] we have built up our company to represent 20 percent of the aggregate sales in the New York metropolitan market,” added Dooley. “We are still growing [and] I believe that the location of our facility has been one of the keys to our success.”
Within 15 minutes of the New York Sand & Stone facility, there are more than 20 ready-mix plants.
For contractors with union laborers, we offer tremendous cost savings,” said Dooley. “They can pick up aggregate materials six days a week from our location in the heart of the city and not waste time sending employees all the way upstate to pick up aggregate materials.”
In addition to stone products, New York Sand & Stone distributes sand products mined by Amboy Aggregates from the Ambrose Channel, the main shipping channel serving the New York harbor.
Operating under a permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers, sand is mined from the ocean floor to maintain necessary depths for the ever-expanding shipping fleets utilizing the New York/New Jersey ports.
The sand is used by both ready-mix and asphalt producers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
In addition to serving plant customers, this product is certified by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and has become one of the largest sources of “certified clean fill” in the city to contractors and owners attempting to meet strict environmental needs. CEG
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