Cement plant opens in Cramahe

Last weekend Holcim unveiled the new clock in downtown Colborne as part of the Company's 50th anniversary, and Colborne's 150th.

Fifty years ago the St. Lawrence Cement Company announced the construction of a loading dock for its Ogden Point Quarry.

Harold Harnden, a regular contributor and supporter of Cramahe Now and the community, has archived stories of many events in the life of the community. We thank him for this account of the opening of the dock.

Cement Plant To Use Dock At Colborne Year Round

An unusual loading dock, located a quarter of a mile from shore, will be built at Ogden Point, Ontario, for one of the world's largest cement producers.

St. Lawrence Cement Company, of Clarkson, Ontario, has awarded a contract to Dravo of Canada Ltd., Toronto, for construction of the 480-foot-long cellular steel shed pile dock.

Included in the contract also are a quarry stone causeway and a 700-foot-long trestle to carry a belt conveying system.

The dock, one of the few of its type on Lake Ontario, will be used for loading limestone on ships bound from Ogden Point, near Colborne, about 100 miles east of Toronto, to St. Lawrence Cement's Clarkson plant. Locating the dock 1,300 feet from shore in water 32 feet deep eliminates the necessity for dredging a harbour to accommodate the draft of lake freighters.

Officials of St. Lawrence Cement expect to use the dock 12 months a year. They intend to start shipping early in the summer of 1959. It is expected that shipments will be increased in a few years from 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons of limestone.

A 40-foot diameter cell, which will support loading equipment, and four 35-foot diameter cells will make up the face of the dock. The quarrystone causeway, 30 feet wide at the top and 600 feet long, and four 25-foot diameter cells will support the conveyor trestle.

All cells will rest on rock, will extend about 15 feet above water level and will be filled with quarried stone. The central loader cell will be capped with three feet of concrete, while all other cells will have a two-foot thick cap. Connecting the five dock cells will be a structural steel walkway.

Dravo of Canada has awarded two sub-contracts on the job. Trent Valley Sand and Stone Limited, of Brighton, Ontario, will build the causeway, and Runnymede Steel Construction Limited,Toronto, will erect the steelwork for the conveyor trestle.