The Specialists with a Passion for Soil Stabilization – with Wirtgen Equipment

Mt. Carmel | Illinois, USA

Wirtgen’s WR series cold recyclers and soil stabilizers are an imposing sight. They are equally impressive in action, and it’s easy to see why they are one of the decisive factors in the success of Mt. Carmel Stabilization Group Inc. – specialist contractors for soil stabilization with lime and cement out of Illinois (USA).

“As the guy responsible for our equipment, what interests me most about a construction machine is, of course, its availability for the job it’s supposed to do. From my experience, there’s nothing that gets even anywhere near to Wirtgen equipment. In the past, before we upgraded to WRs, we often took a pair of the machines we had along to the project site, because we never knew whether one alone would make it through a whole day. Today, there’s no need for that anymore,” says Kelly Crowder, Vice President of Equipment & Facilities in our double-interview with him and Company President Neil Ryan.

The core business of the Mt. Carmel Stabilization Group is soil stabilization. How come?

Neil Ryan: We started out over a century ago, with a sand and gravel works along the Wabash River, not far from our home town of Mt. Carmel, Illinois. Thirty years later, we began doing full depth reclamation on county roads. After another thirty years, we began expanding into lime and cement stabilization. And that’s where we have stayed until today – doing what we do best. Nevertheless, our goal is to be even better in everything we do – and this is driven by our constant commitment to innovation and quality.

What arguments convince your customers of the benefits of soil stabilization?

Kelly Crowder: The method makes the replacement of soils with poor load bearing capacities more or less superfluous. Moving earth with excavators, loading it onto trucks, taking it away for disposal, and then trucking load bearing soil to the site and spreading it is a much more costly alternative.

On most of our construction sites, we actually manage to make transportation distances even shorter. We stockpile materials like lime and cement at our ten decentralized depots strategically located across the Midwest of the United States.

What are the most typical contracts for you and our team?

Neil Ryan: The majority involve soil stabilization for roads and highways of all kinds and the preparation of sites for industrial developments.

How do you get these contracts?

Neil Ryan: In most cases, we engage in dialog with our customers as early as in the bidding phase and offer them our support. This is because precise project planning based on laboratory analysis is a very important factor in soil stabilization measures. Our consulting services identify areas where costs can be reduced without compromising on quality – like in the choice of suitable construction materials in the ideal proportions and right quantities for the job.

What role do Wirtgen WR machines play for your company?

Kelly Crowder: You have to know that our projects are extremely varied. Some involve only a couple of meters and can be done in a day, while others can take months and need thousands of tons of lime and cement. All these contracts have had one thing in common over the past 14 years – Wirtgen soil stabilizers.

Neil Ryan: Wirtgen machines are absolutely unbeatable when it comes to versatility and durability. One day, a team can be out on a soil stabilization project and, a day later, they can be granulating the asphalt of a road that needs repairing somewhere else – all with the same machine. And the productivity of the WR is high on both jobs.

What do you, and especially the people who work with them, appreciate most about the cold recyclers and soil stabilizers?

Neil Ryan: The first thing you notice about the WR machines is their high quality – their proverbial “German engineering”. There numerous functions and features that make handling much easier and reduce the users’ workload. Above all, however, Wirtgen was the first manufacturer in the construction industry to share our dedication to delivering only the highest quality. The build-quality of the WR machines is considerably better and more robust than that of all the other machines we have ever used. And I’m talking about a really wide range of brands we’ve worked with in the past – none of which got even close to the quality of our Wirtgen equipment.

Kelly Crowder: As the guy responsible for our equipment, what interests me most about a construction machine is, of course, its availability for the job it’s supposed to do. From my experience, there’s nothing that gets even anywhere near to Wirtgen equipment. Our WR 240i machines are rugged and reliable and do a fine job on every project. In the past, before we upgraded to WRs, we often took a pair of the machines we had along to the project site, because we never knew whether one alone would make it through a whole day.

Today, we’re happy to have left that way behind us. We have absolute trust in Wirtgen, even under the toughest conditions. We just love to get out and play in the dirt with our WRs!