With a career spent in quarrying and concrete product manufacturing, Owen Batham, Sales and Marketing Director at Elite Precast Concrete is ideally placed to look at how reducing water logging in material storage can offer several significant benefits, these include:

Lower Transportation Costs
Minimising water ingress in stored aggregates and quarried materials ensures that the materials retain their original, dry weight. This prevents unnecessary increases in transport costs, as haulage charges are often weight-based. Drier stockpiles mean you’re not paying to move excess water.

Improved Handling Efficiency
Dry materials are significantly easier to handle, load and process. This reduced the manual handling time, minimises equipment wear and lowers the risk of slips and injuries associated with wet, slippery conditions in storage bays and loading areas.

Preservation of Material Quality
Water logging can degrade material quality by causing clumping, leaching of fines, or encouraging mould and corrosion, particularly in recycling or secondary aggregates. Keeping materials dry helps maintain their structural integrity and ensures consistent product quality for end users.

Reduced Material Waste
Materials damaged by water exposure – whether through spoilage, contamination, or loss of fines – often have to be discarded, leading to increased costs. Effective water management and storage solutions reduce this wastage, saving money and resources.

Enhanced Operational Efficiency
Dry stockpiles are easier to work with, leading to smoother and faster loading, processing and delivery operations. This translates to improved productivity across the site.

Lower Energy Costs
Wet materials are heavier and may require additional drying or separation processes before use, which increases energy consumption. Keeping stockpiles dry reduces processing needs and associated energy costs.

Extended Shelf Life
Many quarried materials, especially those used in construction and concrete production, have a longer usable lifespan when kept dry, reducing the frequency of stock turnover and need for replacements.

Improved Safety
Waterlogged storage areas can create unstable ground conditions and increase the risk of slips, trips and falls. Proper drainage and dry storage help maintain safer working environments for site personnel.

Compliance with Regulations
Effective water management and storage practices help quarries meet strict UK environmental and safety regulations, including those related to groundwater protection, runoff control and pollution prevention.

Cost Savings
Collectively, these benefits result in substantial cost savings – through reduced transport and labour costs, lower energy consumption, less materials waste and improved operational efficiency.

Conclusion
Owen concludes that by implementing robust drainage and storage solutions – such as well-designed bays, covered stockpiles and efficient site water management – UK quarry operators can protect their materials, streamline site operations and enhance both profitability and environmental performance,

As manufacturers of Legato® and Duo™ interlocking blocks regularly used in the building of storage bays within the quarrying industry, Elite Precast Concrete have seen how storage systems are paying dividends by preserving material integrity, streamlining operations and ultimately reducing overall costs.

Elite Precast Concrete work with a number of specialist companies, who can design and install storage bay solutions to ensure the maximum used of space and an efficient dry solution.

For further information please call the Elite Team or visit www.eliteprecast.co.uk/interlocking-blocks