No stone unturned: Cape mining company to expand quarry operations

Southeast Missouri Stone Co. plans to mine limestone on an additional 55 acres at its quarry on South Kingshighway. The company currently mines limestone on 66 acres at the site.

Southeast Missouri Stone, a subsidiary of Cape Girardeau-based Delta Companies Inc., recently informed the Cape Girardeau County Commission that it has filed for a permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to expand mining operations.

"Approval might take several months, but we continue to mine on our current permitted acreage," said James Gregory, regional manager of aggregate operations at Delta Companies. "The 55 acres are property we own, so it will be an expansion of the quarry ... an expansion into our reserves."

Gregory said the additional acres would give the company 30-plus years of limestone mining, and there are more untapped reserves.

The existing quarry has been mined to a depth of more than 200 feet, and the company needs to expand the quarry laterally, according to Gregory.

The quarry gas 30 employees. While the expansion will not increase that number, it will keep the company growing.

Debbi Robinson, human resources director at Delta Companies, said the company currently employs about 450 workers in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and northeast and central Arkansas. She said revenue exceeds $100 million annually. Its customer base includes the state highway departments of Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, as well as area cities and counties, and hundreds of contractors and other businesses.

"We've been in a growth mode for many years," Robinson said.

Gregory said aggregates -- different sizes of limestone rocks -- are used in concrete and asphalt for construction of roads and highways.

"Most of the roads and highways in Southeast Missouri have our aggregate in them," he said. "Our material is being used to resurface part of Kingshighway right now."

Gregory said the limestone aggregates are tested to make sure they meet certain specifications. He said the state requires different sizes of limestone rock for use in concrete and asphalt. Limestone is crushed and screened with specialized equipment into different sizes, which are then placed in storage piles. Gregory said there are more than 15 different piles of aggregate at the quarry, ranging from large riprap boulders to agricultural limestone.

A million man-hours

Robinson said the quarry has operated for more than one million man-hours without a lost-time accident. Gregory said that equates to 13 years of operation without a lost-time accident. The company plans to celebrate that accomplishment in October.

Delta Cos. started as a partnership in 1920 between Edward Regenhardt and William Harrison. The company became one of the largest concrete paving firms in the Midwest between 1952 and 1966 due to its work on many miles of interstate highways in Missouri and Illinois.

According to Robinson, in August 1959, the company paved more than a linear mile in one day of Interstate 57 in Scott County, which made it only the ninth highway-paving contractor in the country to accomplish that feat.

Robinson said that during the 1960s, as the interstate program came to an end in the Cape Girardeau area, the company began converting from predominately concrete construction to the construction, asphalt and material supply business it is today.

"As we've grown we've kept individual names of companies we have acquired," said Robinson. "We are not known as Delta Companies everywhere. We're known as Clinton Materials in Southeast Missouri, in Arkansas it's Delta Asphalt of Arkansas and in Illinois it's Southern Illinois Materials and Southern Illinois Asphalt. And in Cape it's Southeast Missouri Stone, Delta Concrete, Apex Paving and Delta Asphalt. Delta Companies is the holding company of all our subsidiaries."

Gregory said no one can approach Cape Girardeau on any interstate that Delta Companies did not play a significant role in its construction.

"Our aggregate is even in the Bill Emerson Bridge," he said, adding that the project called for the largest continuous concrete pour in the history of the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The business college at Southeast Missouri State University -- the Donald L. Harrison College of Business -- is named for Donald L. Harrison, who served as president and majority owner of Delta Companies for nearly 40 years.

jobert@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 251