A Good Neighbor: Vulcan Materials

Vulcan Materials Company has been tucked back off Chastain Road in Kennesaw for 60 years. But their impact on the Kennesaw community goes well beyond the material which comes out of the ground at this mining facility.

Located at 1272 Duncan Road, Vulcan hosts some 7,000 elementary school students each year for tours of their onsite museum to study rocks and minerals.

“That’s what they are studying in the third through sixth grades, so we are happy to show them what we do,” said Edith Parivechio, community relations specialist for Vulcan’s Southeast division in Kennesaw.

“We show them how minerals are in such things as toothpaste, pencil lead, and even food,” said Parivechio, who has worked at the open pit mining facility for 16 years.

She added that college engineering students from Georgia Tech, Southern Polytechnic State, Kennesaw State, and Georgia State universities also visit the facility to study their equipment and geological information.

Vulcan has 47 employees presently at the Kennesaw facility, which encompasses 350 acres. Three years ago, Vulcan sold four million tons of aggregate in one year, she said. Now it’s down to about two million tons annually due to the economic downturn.

“It really impacts us when people stop building roads and construction projects,” said Parivechio, adding most of the buildings surrounding the quarry—including KSU and Town Center Mall—were built with rock from their site. The pre-planned route of Interstate 75 and the rock formation found in this area were deciding factors in starting the quarry in this location, she added.

 "The biggest cost of concrete is the transportation from the source—the rock," said Parivechio. The quarry pit is currently 650 feet deep, one mile long and more than a half-mile wide.

Vulcan Materials blasts their rock quarry three times per week and always alerts their nearby neighbor, , she said. They are also good neighbors to the nearby Kennesaw schools, and participate in partnerships with the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, Kennesaw Business Association, and other organizations.

"Mining used to be an out-of-sight, out-of mind industry, but no more, because we are a very visible part of the Kennesaw community," said Parivechio.