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UtahRails.net

Truck Shops At Bingham

This page last updated on June 18, 2022.

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Yosemite Truck Shop (1964-1987)

(Located at the southeastern edge of the open pit mine, at what was known as the Yosemite Notch, the low point in the ridge at the head of Yosemite Gulch, where the pioneering Yosemite mine was located in earlier times.)

(Also known as the 6800 shop, named for the elevation of the site.)

Built in 1963-1964; mostly inactive from the mid 1980s after the 6190 truck shop was built; buried in 2003.

1964
The Yosemite truck shop was opened. Construction had started in June 1963 as part of the $100 million expansion program announced in February 1963. The expansion included the use of truck haulage for waste rock removal.

Starting in June and July 1984, thousands of employees were laid off, and by January 1985 there were only 2,200 workers at Kennecott's Utah operations. On April 30, 1985, the work force was cut in half, leaving just over 1,000 workers (from a peak of almost 8,000 in 1982), and the Bingham mine was closed completely. Then in August 1985, after exhausting the ore that had already been mined, the three mills were also shut down.

In 1986 the Yosemite truck shop was closed and abandoned. One retired employee wrote: "After the 1985 mine shutdown the Yosemite Shops were abandoned, but offices in the interior were used to store important records. In the early 1990s I went to look at them and it was really strange being in such a large, cold, cavernous empty building in the middle of winter. I didn't find what I was looking for, but there were a lot of binders containing engineering reports for various modernization projects. Some files were locked and none of the keys loaned me worked. There were thick rolls of mine plans."

Another retired employee wrote: "I was in that building in 1994. They used part of it to cut up and scrap old equipment. I was told it's still there. They just dumped the overburden on top and it finally collapsed under the weight." Another retired employee recalled that when the dumping started in 2003, "I went in there during a lull in the dumping. In the west side of the shop, there was a sign saying: 'Do Not Block Aisle.' There was a Volkswagen size boulder in the middle of the aisle that had rolled through the west wall. I will never forget that image."

Within the past five years, in about 2015 or 2016 after the cleanup of the 2013 slide had been completed and operations had returned to normal, expansion required that the waste dumps in the Yosemite area be removed and ore be taken from the underlying ground. There were reports that the Yosemite shops were soon revealed and removed, including removing tons and tons of concrete floors and metal items that had been buried in 2003, including the overhead cranes.

Bingham Truck Shop (1987-2013)

(Located at the northeastern edge of the open pit mine, near the visitor observation point.)

(Also known as the 6190 shop, named for the elevation of the site)

In September 1986 after completing a $400 million modernization program for the mine, mills and smelter, Kennecott resumed operations at the Bingham mine, after being closed since April 1985. The modernization program included a new truck shop at the 6190 mine level.

A photo dated June 20, 1987, taken during a visit to the public visitor center on the edge of the open pit mine, shows the steel framework of the new truck shop nearly complete, but without any outside covering.

The Bingham truck shop was opened later in 1987, as part of the resumption of mining operations, replacing the closed and abandoned Yosemite shop.

The new location near the old 6190 rail yard was more centrally located than the old Yosemite shop, including the later dumping that filled the lower parts of Bingham canyon by 2002. The resumption of mining operations included the planned expansion of waste rock dumping to fill in more of the lower parts of Bingham canyon itself, and a centrally located truck shop would allow more efficient operations.

Plans were made as early as 2005 to move the Bingham shop, along with the visitor center, to make way for the "East Wall Push Back." The new Copperfield shop was completed in 2006, with 39,000 square feet, and expanded to 145,000 square feet in 2011, making the older 6190 Bingham shop unnecessary.

By the time of the April 2013 slide, the Bingham shop was no longer in use and all of the personnel had been moved to the new shop, along with all of the machinery and tools to maintain the truck fleet. The slide destroyed about half of the older unused truck shop, and the remaining part was removed using remotely controlled equipment during the summer of 2013.

Copperfield Truck Shop (2006- current)

(Located north and east of the Bingham shop, which it replaced.)

(Also known as the "new" 6190 shop, especially after the older 6190 shop was demolished in 2013)

First completed in 2006 as an auxiliary location to the existing 6190 shop located about 1500 feet to the south. Expanded and extended several times since then.

2006
The following comes from the Big D Construction company's web site:

2011
The following comes from the Big D Construction company's web site:

December 2013
Kennecott completed the expansion of its 6190 truck shop, located at the northeastern edge of the open pit mine. This work was already under way when the massive slide took place in April 2013, severely damaging a nearby truck shop that was being dismantled in preparation for the expanded facilities.

The following comes from Utah Construction & Design magazine:

The following comes from the Hunt Electric company web site:

Photos

Bingham Truck Shops -- A photo album of all three kennecott trucks shops at Bingham, Utah.

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