Visitors to the March 15-19 ConExpo-Con/Agg will be reminded of the astounding volume of construction Las Vegas has logged over the past 15 years. During that period, the city has transformed its famous Strip — with 50,000-plus new hotel rooms — and welcomed enough newcomers to keep Clark County among the country's fastest growing population centers. The market drivers for the next decade or more appear to be high-rise condominium and apartment towers, replacing the Strip's resort-hotel ramp up that spanned the Mirage in 1990 through the $2 billion Wynn this year. Along with the condo and apartment towers will be the continued rapid development of single-family home communities and subdivisions, plus a new highway or two.

Las Vegas' construction materials market harbors major ready mixed and aggregate players, Rinker Materials and Nevada Ready Mix, with Aggregate Industries recently surfacing in aggregate, asphalt and paving. North Las Vegas-based All Star Transit Mix has emerged as the leading independent producer since 2001, when Concrete Products visited the company upon its opening of a second ready mixed plant on the metro area's south side. The addition of a third property as a southwest satellite, plus fleet investments and continued market penetration, have seen All Star more than double its annual ready mixed output — eclipsing the 600,000-yd. mark — in the past three years.

Following last fall's flagship relocation, the company now sports what it is likely the fastest and most versatile ready mixed plant between Phoenix and Los Angeles. All Star's new headquarters site lies about eight miles north of downtown Las Vegas, at the Interstate 15 & Interstate 215 intersection, and a stone's throw from a rail-served Ash Grove Cement terminal.

The plant positions the company with quick highway access to future work as the metropolitan area moves north. Much growth will follow upcoming Bureau of Land Management auctions of large parcels, making way for thousands of homes in a market currently gaining 6,700 residents monthly. BLM holdings are among a federal government portfolio accounting for more than 90 percent of Nevada land.

“We have two plants to serve growth areas on the south end of town, and now have a significantly improved facility on the north end to adequately cover established areas and future development,” notes All Star President Ennis Jordan. “This plant allows us to pursue all types of public and private work and is on a site we can grow into.”

The twin alley facility is equipped with a Con-E-Co 400 SLP plant. The wet alley has a 15-yd. drum that enables production of up to 12 yd. of 8-in. slump mixes, typical in Las Vegas, with no spillage. To increase mixer turnaround, the drum dispenses into a 12-yd. holding hopper that charges trucks through an open funnel end, a feature that could be upgraded with a butterfly valve for more controlled flow. Holding hoppers for water, aggregate and powder allow the dry alley to operate independent of the wet alley. A 54-in. belt serves both sides, underscoring producer's speedy objectives.

The company has opened the plant with 50 dedicated mixers. Management sees a nimble fleet as key to covering its residential building customers, accounting for about 50 percent of volume, and participating in highway work. In 2004, for example, All Star dispatched 65,000 yd. from its southwest satellite plant to a nearby portion of I-215, which runs along Las Vegas' west and northern periphery.

The ability to deliver in excess of 500 yd./hour will also position the company for work on the above-noted high-rise (10-plus stories) residential developments — about 40 of which are now on the books for groundbreaking through the end of the decade. The plant is also well equipped with automated liquid color dispensing equipment (Davis' Chameleon) to serve the market's growing demand for decorative commercial or residential flatwork, and tinted flowable fill orders common in utility work.