SOURCE: Pit and Quarry | May 31, 2025
North Central Aggregates is a contract crushing operation that describes itself as “nimble, versatile, fast and flexible” as it tackles new territories with a skilled team and a highly compact portable cone plant.
The family-owned company is headquartered in Iron River, Wisconsin, a region loaded with lakes in the northernmost tip of the state. Recently, the operation expanded to the south – into lower Michigan, where it’s processing material to stringent Department of Transportation (DOT) specs.
The compact design of North Central Aggregates’ new portable plant delivers big results on smaller footprints. When paired with a portable jaw, the company says it’s realizing “optimum versatility in portable custom crushing.”
Greg Kolodziej serves as president of the newly named North Central Aggregates, which was formerly Iron River Sand & Gravel. That’s the company Kolodziej’s father, Thomas, founded 40 years ago.
Kolodziej grew up in gravel pits, spending time around operations, equipment and sites with his father since he was 3 years old.
“It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do,” he says. “The geology is so unique here with diverse types of rock in the region. Over the years, you learn about finding the right portable equipment, and how best to adapt that equipment to different deposits.”
As North Central Aggregates prepped for expansion, Kolodziej and his team worked with Superior Industries and its dealer, Rock Machinery.
“Superior really stood out for me,” Kolodziej says. “They have a long reputation in the industry, and they’ve got really good people. Along with our local dealer and the factory, we have solid parts and service support here for us.”
Kolodziej stresses that North Central Aggregates had a “startup” mindset, aiming to move quickly with the new southern division.
“Superior and Rock Machinery were able to provide the assistance – and the portable plant we needed,” Kolodziej says.
Compact cone plant
North Central Aggregates’ Greg Kolodziej says setup and teardown are simplified with its new plant. A recent setup, for example, spanned roughly 45 minutes. Photo: Superior Industries
North Central Aggregates now operates a portable Superior P300 Patriot closed-circuit cone plant that’s equipped with a Guardian screen.
Before purchasing the plant, North Central Aggregates rented a similar one from Rock Machinery for a six-month period. The company liked its performance, reliability and its ability to fit into tight spaces.
“It’s a rugged, durable plant that’s quite adaptable in handling different types of deposits, and since it’s a closed-circuit plant we’re fast and flexible when we move,” Kolodziej says.
As Kolodziej describes, some open-circuit plants have four loads or more.
“With just one load, we’re able to fit into some of these smaller footprints,” he says, adding that with the Patriot cone North Central Aggregates can produce at the same capacity as plants that are much bigger – and more costly to mobilize.
At each site, North Central Aggregates has entirely different configurations. Kolodziej says it’s easy to back the cone plant in and line it up with the portable jaw for complete custom crushing.
Additionally, Kolodziej says setup and teardown are simplified.
“With the plant’s hydraulic controls and with how everything integrates, folds in place and lifts up, we can take this plant from the blocks to being on a truck in less than an hour and a half,” he says. “That’s including cleaning the machine off before it hits the road.”
According to Kolodziej, setup during a recent move took about 45 minutes. It involved having the plant blocked, leveled and ready to crush.
Maximum uptime
The Patriot cone crusher, meanwhile, handles everything North Central Aggregates feeds it.
North Central Aggregates recently encountered stone that had iron in it. Kolodziej says the stone was the hardest he’s ever encountered in a natural sand and gravel deposit in southern Michigan.
“Yet, we were able to keep pace at up to 300 tph of pure stone production, which is really good,” he says.
Also, Kolodziej says North Central Aggregates has been in a couple of pits where it ran straight from the jaw into the cone plant to average 500-tph production of two different dense-grade DOT spec materials – at the same time.
The Patriot cone crusher North Central Aggregates handles everything operators feed it. Photo: Superior Industries
“It’s a high-performance plant that’s designed to evenly feed and distribute material to the cone for top crushing efficiency,” Kolodziej says.
According to Superior engineers, the Patriot cone crusher is designed with features that deliver maximum uptime and lower operating costs. The standouts include inverted tramp relief cylinders, with a reverse design that prevents hydraulic seal contamination during operation. The tramp relief system is also designed with fewer accumulators for less maintenance and failure points, Superior says, while an automatic pressure-relief valve adds greater protection.
Notably, the machine is designed with a counterclockwise countershaft. If a loss of clamping pressure occurs, this unique rotation causes the crusher to open – rather than tighten down and cause damage.
Additionally, Superior engineered the cone with easy access to the mainframe during inspections and maintenance.
“Superior has really done a great job in keeping the crusher as accessible and user-friendly as possible without sacrificing space or production capacity,” Kolodziej says.
Cost-saving controls
To maintain optimum production conditions, Superior’s Vantage automation controls the cone crusher and alerts operators to issues that should be addressed.
Because the automation is designed in-house, Superior engineers can add or modify features of the program based on the functionality the users want and need.
“The plant controls really streamline operations,” Kolodziej says.
He particularly appreciates that no lengthy training is needed with the automation.
“It’s really helped the operators to know if we’re getting into some really hard material, or if we’re experiencing too much recirculating load,” Kolodziej says.
For cold weather operations like those in Wisconsin, Vantage controls will place the machine in “winter mode,” which maintains lube temperature while the crusher isn’t running.
“We are blessed to have the right equipment in the hands of a dedicated, skilled crew,” Kolodziej says. “Our operation is nimble, versatile, fast and flexible as a complete custom crushing operation for Wisconsin, southern Michigan and beyond.”
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