Lakeside Issaquah Big & Silent

Panoramic view of site - click on photo to enlarge

Pat Van Eaton, Superintendent of Lakeside Issaquah has reason to be proud of the new Westec designed primary crushing plant. It is clean, quiet, efficient, and just what he wanted.

Operating a large aggregate production facility today is a challenge. This is especially true for Lakeside Issaquah because of its location. Issaquah has experienced a great deal of growth since Lakeside first began production near the southeast corner of Lake Samammish in the 1940s. As the years have passed the pit has been hemmed in by interstate 90 on the south, homes and businesses on the West and North and soon a Microsoft campus and housing development to the East.

"We’ve been surrounded," said Van Eaton at his Issaquah office. "One of the reasons we needed to build this plant was the rock size we are dealing with. We needed something that could handle the 30"- but we have to keep the noise down." "The new crusher has been operational since June 15th," said Van Eaton. "It is putting out 4,000 tons in eight hours and the project has been tremendously successful."

"We are already seeing the benefits. One of the main areas is easy cleanup. The plant is mounted on a concrete slab with pillar type foundations that allow us to drive right under with the 980 loader instead of doing it by hand. We also installed 4"+ rubber on the chutes, feeders and grizzly bars to decrease the noise. That was tremendously successful," Van Eaton smiled. "I’ve tested the noise at the crusher and it is below 90 decibels." He explained, "Freeway traffic ranges from 80 to 100 decibels considering the size of rock we are moving that’s great."

"Westec provided just what we were looking for," He continued. "I was looking for a local supplier that I could work with so that we could do design and engineering changes and be involved. We like to support local business because there are a lot of advantages to having people right here who really know what they are doing. We had suggestions and ideas that we wanted to incorporate into the design and working with Westec allowed us to do that without any problems." Van Eaton concluded, "We chose to do the installation ourselves. Westec delivered the plant in modular sections to make it easier, the parts all went together and we were never waiting on Westec."

Van Eaton reapeated, "Everything fit. When you are looking at a project of this size, that’s saying something."

Westec president Ed Christiansen is also proud of the new crushing facility. "We were trying to provide a better means of crushing imported aggregate, reduce the rehandling of material, improve production, reduce labor costs and keep noise at a minimum," He said. "I think we’ve done that."

"Part of the overall design goal of reducing cost was met by reducing labor costs both in material handling and in maintenance," Christiansen explained. "This plant is state of the art. It is extremely efficient and Lakeside Issaquah can now easily accept either quarry trucks or highway trucks bringing material from other sources, including recycle."

Rubber for the plant was furnished by Rockland and the rubber lining of chutes grizzly bars and the vibrating pan feeder not only decrease noise, but also reduce wear and cleanup costs and helped to achieve Van Eaton’s objectives for the new plant.

Among the goals for Westec’s design engineers was to provide a better means of crushing imported aggregate. To accomplish this, Westec designed a 37’ tall crushing structure with a 100 ton primary hopper manufactured to receive 30" rock. A breaker is used for material in excess of 30 inches. The hopper is fitted with a 62" x 18’ vibrating grizzly feeder. Smaller material is fed into the bypass chute while the larger rock goes to the 3042 jaw crusher. Material then passes to the 56" x 26’ vibrating pan feeder which, like the grizzly, is completely rubber lined to reduce noise and wear.

The plant structure includes about 70 tons of steel and is mounted on a concrete slab and pillar type supports. It measures 64" deep by 34 feet wide and is designed to allow for the future installation of an even larger Lippmann 4248 Jaw. The plant’s elevated design allows for efficient removal of spillage with Lakeside’s 980 loader. Van Eaton and Lakeside are looking to the future and so is Westec.

What’s New

Westec Industries is proud to announce our representation of Spaulding Parts Division. Spaulding Equipment Company (SEC) specializes in the design, construction and support of material processing operations in the Western United States.

Founded in 1966, Spaulding is a California corporation with facilities located in Perris, CA and Sacramento, CA. Spaulding has been successful by making its corporate goal to always provide a better value/service to its customers than the competition. Spaulding achieves this everyday through accountable people, quality products and consistent execution. Spaulding maintains the largest Symons crusher parts inventories on the West Coast. When you’re down, you can get top of the line service and performance with Westec and high quality SEC parts.

FOR COLD WEATHER CONCRETE PRODUCTION.....