Cement

The last time Jon Hyman led a company, he helped turn the golf industry on its head, introducing plastic cleats to replace metal spikes. Now, he's planning a revolution for a similarly staid business: concrete. "This is not a very exciting industry, but we've been able to do things differently," said Hyman, who is chief executive officer of Baltimore-based CeraTech Inc. CeraTech has a technology that seeks to replace the way that cement has been made for nearly 200 years, since English inventor Joseph Aspdin mixed chalk and clay and heated it in a kiln to produce what is now widely known as Portland cement.

As the German-owned Lehigh Cement Co. prepares for growth at its Union Bridge plant, company officials hope to gain permission soon from Carroll County commissioners to permanently store an alternative fuel source and to expand mining at a higher-quality limestone quarry in nearby New Windsor. The county commissioners said they are close to approving an amendment allowing Lehigh to continue storing treated sewage sludge on its grounds. Lehigh officials said theirs is the first cement plant in North America to burn the pelletized sludge, known as biosolids, as an alternative fuel to power the plant's cement kiln.

Can you apply stucco to the exterior of a brick home? What tips can you share to ensure the stucco does not peel off? Yes, you can. Not only do you need the right tools and equipment, but you also need good hand-eye coordination to do the job well. These challenges are not insurmountable. You can rent the needed scaffolding and power mixer that will be required for the job. I recommend that you hone your technique on a practice wall before trying to stucco your house. First, inspect your existing brick.

Officials for Lehigh Portland Cement Co. and the state Department of the Environment have been invited to Philadelphia next week to air their disagreement with the Environmental Protection Agency -- which last week shut down construction of the cement company's kiln.The EPA's stop-work order was the first issued to a Maryland company under the Clean Air Act since Congress amended the law in 1990 to give the federal agency that authority, said EPA spokesman David S. Sternberg and Ann Marie DeBiase, deputy director of the state Air and Radiation Management Administration.

Political leaders and union workers shared their views at a public hearing last night on the proposed expansion of Lehigh Portland Cement Co. in Union Bridge.About 60 people attended the Maryland Department of the Environment hearing at the Union Bridge Community Center. The department has given tentative approval for three air quality permits for the plant, but a series of public hearings are required before the permits are issued.Most of the questions at the hearing came from union members concerned about their jobs.

STOPPING WORK on the $260 million expansion of Lehigh Portland Cement Co.'s plant in Union Bridge is an unusual step that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shouldn't have had to take.But the agency did so last week because it believes that Lehigh should install better equipment to reduce its air pollution. EPA overruled the state of Maryland, which approved a permit after nearly three years of talks with the company, and after the state Department of Environment refused to include EPA proposals in the permit.

Rosalie Crockett is pouring coffee and apologizing for forgetting to bring cream to the table of her Glen Burnie home. "Do you want some coffee? Lunch? Some of these chocolate chip cookies? You sure you don't want some lunch?"After a death in the family, people believe they should try to eat something. It's a distraction, and distractions help.Rosalie "Rose" Crockett's husband, Bruce, died Saturday at age 64 following quadruple bypass heart surgery early this month. He just never got better.

The operator of a street sweeping machine was killed yesterday when his vehicle was struck by a freight train inside the loading tunnel of a Carroll County cement firm, according to state police at the Westminster Barracks.Police said Ronald L. Stewart, 41, was sweeping the inside of the tunnel at the Lehigh Cement Co. in the 100 block of S. Main St. in Union Bridge about 1: 20 p.m. when a train, backing up in the tunnel to take a load of cement, struck the sweeping machine, pushing it against the wall and crushing Stewart, of Union Bridge.

Lehigh Portland Cement Co.'s plans to nearly double the size of its Union Bridge plant received the backing of the Carroll County commissioners, who approved using $125 million in state bonds for the $260 million expansion yesterday.The industrial revenue bonds, issued by the Maryland Energy Finance Administration, will help pay for Lehigh's first major modernization since it opened in Carroll County in 1910.Cement output at the plant will increase from 1 million to 1.9 million tons per year.

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow to discuss Lehigh Portland Cement Co.'s application for a permit for a $180 million expansion.The informational meeting will be held at the Union Bridge Community Center on Ladiesburg Road.Lehigh is planning to expand and modernize its Union Bridge plant. The company needs a permit from MDE's Air and Radiation Management Administration because the cement manufacturer's stacks discharge toxic air pollutants, such as chloroform, benzene, cadmium, nickel and mercury.

Herbert Ray "Speedy" Kennedy, a retired Lehigh Portland Cement Co. electrician and an avid outdoorsman, died Monday of complications from colon surgery at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The Union Bridge resident was 81. Mr. Kennedy, the son of a Portland Cement Co. heavy equipment operator and a homemaker, was born and raised in Union Bridge. After graduating from Elmer A. Wolfe High School in 1945, he enlisted in the Navy and served in Cuba and Panama aboard the submarine tender USS Orion.

Originally settled as a farming community in the 1700s and later known as Buttersburg because the town's general store operator would take local butter for payment on goods, Union Bridge didn't get its current name until 1820. This came after a bridge was built over the Pipe Creek and swampland. Because residents on both sides of the bridge pitched in to help, it became known as Union Bridge. Today the sleepy country town located just 11 miles outside Westminster in rural Carroll County offers residents an amiable retreat.

A leading provider of construction cement was ordered yesterday to pay $1.7 million in damages to a Baltimore concrete firm after the cement company was accused of selling a substandard product later used in a college dormitory at the Johns Hopkins University. Lawyers for the now-defunct concrete company, Metro Ready Mix Inc., said yesterday's jury verdict raised lingering questions about the practices of Essroc Cement Corp. and the structural soundness of highways, bridges and parking garages that have used its cement - a key ingredient in construction-grade concrete.

Can you apply stucco to the exterior of a brick home? What tips can you share to ensure the stucco does not peel off? Yes, you can. Not only do you need the right tools and equipment, but you also need good hand-eye coordination to do the job well. These challenges are not insurmountable. You can rent the needed scaffolding and power mixer that will be required for the job. I recommend that you hone your technique on a practice wall before trying to stucco your house. First, inspect your existing brick.

As the German-owned Lehigh Cement Co. prepares for growth at its Union Bridge plant, company officials hope to gain permission soon from Carroll County commissioners to permanently store an alternative fuel source and to expand mining at a higher-quality limestone quarry in nearby New Windsor. The county commissioners said they are close to approving an amendment allowing Lehigh to continue storing treated sewage sludge on its grounds. Lehigh officials said theirs is the first cement plant in North America to burn the pelletized sludge, known as biosolids, as an alternative fuel to power the plant's cement kiln.

A Carroll County advisory panel approved last night a request from Lehigh Cement Co. to permanently store pelletized sewage sludge, known as biosolids, for burning at its Union Bridge plant. The Carroll County commissioners are expected to vote on Lehigh's request in the next two weeks, County Attorney Kimberly A. Millender said. After a public hearing, the German company could gain clearance to permanently store the biosolids by mid-September, Millender said. The Lehigh plant is the first cement factory in North America to burn pelletized sludge in addition to coal to fire its cement kiln, according to Lehigh officials.

The last time Jon Hyman led a company, he helped turn the golf industry on its head, introducing plastic cleats to replace metal spikes. Now, he's planning a revolution for a similarly staid business: concrete. "This is not a very exciting industry, but we've been able to do things differently," said Hyman, who is chief executive officer of Baltimore-based CeraTech Inc. CeraTech has a technology that seeks to replace the way that cement has been made for nearly 200 years, since English inventor Joseph Aspdin mixed chalk and clay and heated it in a kiln to produce what is now widely known as Portland cement.

What do you do with one of the world's fastest computers? You can forecast complex hurricane patterns. Or simulate how stars form, how nuclear bombs explode, or how a spacecraft handles solar winds. Or you can learn how to mix concrete. Don't laugh. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg are using a million hours of processor time awarded to them on NASA's fastest supercomputer to analyze the billions of possibilities created by the collisions of tiny particles of sand, gravel and cement whenever a cement truck pours a sidewalk.

James Anderson Chamblee, a retired computer scientist who made two voyages across the Atlantic in a 45-foot ketch, died of heart failure Aug. 18 at Howard County General Hospital. The Columbia resident was 66. Mr. Chamblee was born and raised in Wilmington, N.C., and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He began working for International Business Machines in 1959 and helped develop an electronic reservation system for American Airlines and automation of the New York Stock Exchange.

THEY POURED a new concrete floor for our kitchen this week, and then the dining room microwave and the second-floor shower stopped working. So it goes in the saga of kitchen restoration, a big step forward, a couple of small steps back. The excitement started shortly after 7 a.m. when a throaty cement truck with a rotating mixer reading "LaFarge" pulled up in the alley behind our house, ready to pour. It is every boy's dream. Crews sprang from the accompanying fleet of trucks, and like firefighters attacking a burning building, they went to work.