South Florida Materials Corp.’s new railcar facility at the Port of Palm Beach can unload eight asphalt railcars at a time. (Photo by Carl Thiemann)
Vecenergy Adds Asphalt Railcar Unloading At Port of Palm Beach
(1st/2nd Quarter 2012)
Eight if by land, one if by sea.
Eight railcars at a time, that is, able to supply liquid asphalt to South Florida Materials Corp. through newly installed infrastructure at its Port of Palm Beach location. The facility can also pipe in asphalt from a docked tanker ship.
South Florida Materials is a unit of Vecenergy, the Groups energy division. To expand its supply options, Vecenergy made use of an adjacent rail spur, setting up a boiler, pumps, pipelines and hoses to direct steam through coils in the railcars. After a day of heating, the re-liquified product is piped into one of South Florida Materials six heated tanks (total capacity 200,000 barrels) for distribution via tanker trucks to the areas asphalt contractors, where it is used as a binder in pavement mixes.
The facility also produces Polymer Modified Asphalt and Asphalt Rubber Binder for specialized mixes, and has a 150,000-barrel diesel terminal.
Above: Rusty Ewell checks the connection of an asphalt railcar at South Florida Materials in the Port of Palm Beach. (Photos by Carl Thiemann)
Above: Jerry Almodovar of South Florida Materials opens a valve on the asphalt pipeline during the unloading process.
Above: A technician with the equipment contractor bleeds air out of the lines before the first railcar shipment is unloaded.