Expeditionary Rock Crusher Goes Global

By Mason Lowery, Naval Facilities Expeditionary Logistics Center Public Affairs Officer

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Future Seabee construction project capability got better, lighter and faster March 31 when the Naval Facilities Expeditionary Logistics Center's (NFELC) Expeditionary Rock Crusher was officially given the OK to fly.

The Expeditionary Rock Crusher, or Eagle 1200-25CC portable impact crusher, can be loaded into a C-5 Galaxy aircraft and shipped anywhere Seabees are deployed.

Before the Expeditionary Rock Crusher was developed, deployed Seabees could not easily deploy a rock crusher and had to rely on local raw materials and suppliers to produce many of the key ingredients in their construction projects. These local products often do not meet the quality standards the Naval Construction Force (NCF) sets for its construction projects.

Seabees can now deploy the Expeditionary Rock Crusher with them and create their own mineral base products for concrete and asphalt that meet their high standards.

"The Expeditionary Rock crusher bridges the gap between war debris or rubble and a useful construction project," explained John Lemmond, First Naval Construction Division, Civil Engineer Support Equipment (CESE) readiness program manager. "The Seabees take that mineral-based pile of war debris and recycle it into usable construction products like aggregate for asphalt and concrete and other construction materials."

When Seabees first arrive in an area and begin building or rebuilding infrastructure, the first things they build are roads and airstrips to allow Navy and Marine Corps warfighters to arrive after them and focus on their primary missions – preventing or winning wars.

Two of the key ingredients in roads and airstrips, mineral base product, concrete and asphalt, are not always readily available in suitable quantity or quality in deployed locations. The Expeditionary Rock Crusher crushes rocks and material leftover from war – damaged buildings, roads and infrastructure, to create the ingredients of concrete and asphalt.

Chuck Zimmerman, NFELC CESE and NCF systems integration manager, said, "When Seabees go into a war zone and need to build the infrastructure to support the Navy and Marine Corps warfighters, we don't have a pit or quarry available. What we have is what's there – the debris from a natural disaster or war. This machine is designed to recycle that rubble into quality usable construction material."