In 1900, a group of Galveston investors, bought land west of Dallas to build a cement plant and started the Texas Portland Cement & Lime Company (Co.), the first cement company in north Texas. The plant was then successively purchased by Iola Portland Cement Co., Texas Portland Cement & Lime Co. and Texas Portland Cement Co. In 1908, Texas Portland announced plans to expand the plant and established the city of Cement. The city’s population reached a high point of 878 in 1920 and was ultimately annexed by the City of Dallas in 1928. Finally, in 1935, on its' way to becoming the largest cement company in the US, Lone Star Cement Corporation, bought Texas Portland.

The Dallas metro area continued to grow, first supported by cotton farming and later by the discovery of oil. In 1958 Lone Star greatly expanded the plant making it the flagship plant in the growing Lone Star Empire and the largest cement plant in the US. Urban sprawl eventually incorporated the plant into the city limits of Dallas. By the 1960’s the City of Dallas acquired some of the old quarry property to create an interstate connector corridor to the burgeoning sister city of Ft Worth.

Unfortunately, in 1970 urban construction and the lack of additional quarry property forced the plant production to cease, but it survived as a distribution terminal. In 1979, the real estate division of Lone Star developed Lone Star Business Park at the site, still operating today with a single 300-foot (91meter) kiln stack standing as a monument of the past.

What makes the Buzzi Unicem terminal unique is its' close proximity to downtown areas of Dallas. If you’ve ever driven in Dallas, then you have witnessed its epic traffic congestion, something our customers avoid due to the favorable location. The Buzzi terminal is inside the metro Dallas interstate system and easily accessible by truck.

Over the past 20 years the revitalization of the Dallas area has increased the demand for conveniently available cement. The sales out of the Dallas Terminal have gone from 50,000 short tons per year (stpy) (45,375 metric tons per year (mtpy)) to over 250,000 stpy (227,000 mtpy). The original plant silos are still in use but the older truck loading system was working beyond its limits. Additional sales would be available if we could improve the truck loading side and rail unloading process.

The new Terminal

Responding to that demand, in 2018 a modernization project was approved to expand throughput capacity of the aging 250,000 stpy (227,000 mtpy) terminal facility.  The upgrade was conceived to support a maximum 450,000 stpy (410,000 mtpy) throughput due to increasing market demands.  The new facility would include expansion capability for both rail unloading and truck load-out systems.

The existing terminal contained a small 200 st (180 mt) storage tank with a single truck scale and sufficient rail tracks onsite to accommodate a total of 59 rail cars with limited ability to offload.

A majority of the cement is required to be stored in the existing silos, all of which is required to be double handled.  The new terminal system design consists of two new pneumatic rail unloading stations able to directly feed a 3,000 st (2,725 mt) truck load-out storage tank serviced by twin truck load-out stations with scales.   

The project is being implemented in two phases.  Phase 1 includes the new tank placement, and rail unloading and truck loading systems.  The second phase, scheduled for 2020, will demolish an existing packhouse to make room for the addition of expanded rail infrastructure that will fully support up to 112 railcars.

The project faced some interesting challenges, including the need to react to undocumented underground old facility foundations during the civil construction period and a lengthy permitting process with the city of Dallas.  However, probably one of the most difficult challenges came from the persistent record rainfall that was experienced over many months, with several events producing abnormally high volumes of rain.  In all cases our Project team and contractors worked hard to minimize the schedule and cost impacts while efficiently coordinating all work with ongoing terminal operations.

Phase 1 of the new terminal was successfully commissioned within budget in July. We now look forward to a smooth and timely completion of Phase 2 by the second quarter of 2020.