UP Monroc Spur

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This page was last updated on May 8, 2024.

Beck Street Quarry

Newspaper research suggests that the first quarry along the east side of Salt Lake City's Beck Street was Utah Sand & Gravel Products at 1605 North Beck Street. The quarry was opened in 1920, and an expansion of the company's business beyond its existing plant in Taylorsville. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 1920, "nearing completion")

By 1940 the Utah Sand & Gravel company was also offering concrete under the name of Ready Mix Concrete company. By 1966 the company had four other locations in the Salt Lake valley, including Kearns, South Salt Lake, Cottonwood Heights and Magna.

Utah Sand and Gravel

The Utah Sand and Gravel Products Company was first organized in 1920 by Eric and William Ryberg. The Ryberg brothers operated a small contracting firm in Logan, Utah, prior to forming the company. Utah Sand and Gravel was one of the earliest concrete and gravel producers in Utah. During the 1920s, the company had various municipal contracts in Salt Lake City and Provo for the installation of curbs and sidewalks. In the 1930s, the company received government contracts to provide concrete for the Salt Lake Municipal Airport runways. (Archives West finding aid)

Although the company's work on the local airport sounds nice and romantic, it was contracts with the Union Pacific and Western Pacific railroads to supply track ballast that brought high levels of business and growth to the company. These contracts for railroad ballast included the need to furnish hundreds of thousands of tons in the form of 20 to 50 carloads of ballast each day, for multiple years.

On March 1, 1973, three companies (Utah Sand & Gravel Products of Utah, Ready To Pour of Idaho, and Monroc, Inc. of Nevada) were merged ("consolidated") to create a new corporation known as Monroc, Inc. The name Utah Sand & Gravel continued to be used in advertisements as a division of Monroc, Inc. (Idaho Business Records)

By 1994 Monroc had 18 sand, gravel and concrete supply facilities in Utah and Idaho. In 1994, they added four locations in northwest Wyoming.

John D. Smith was one of the founders of Ready-To-Pour Concrete, Idaho Falls, in 1948 and was president until the company merged with Utah Sand & Gravel of Salt Lake City, forming Monroc in 1973. Smith moved from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City at the time of the merger, and remained with Monroc until his retirement in 1982. Smith was born September 26, 1917, and passed away on December 3, 1998.

In early 1998 Monroc, Inc. was acquired by the privately-held U. S. Aggregates.

U. S. Aggregates

U. S. Aggregates had been organized in 1994 specifically as a large holding company meant to dominate the nation's sand and gravel business, and supplying the "demands of the highway and building construction industries for aggregates." Its majority stake holders were a variety of investment groups and private equity firms. "By 1997 the five major aggregates producers together controlled just 25 percent of the total market."

"On June 5, 1998, U.S. Aggregates completed its merger with Monroc, Inc. for $57.6 million. Monroc was U.S. Aggregates' largest acquisition at the time. In 1997 Monroc reported net sales of $61.4 million. It operated mainly in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The purchase of Monroc was part of the company's general expansion. It completed 28 acquisitions from January 1994 when it was founded to May 1999." (Encyclopedia.com)

In August 1999, U. S. Aggregates went public with its IPO. By 2001 the company stated that its performance had been disappointing and reorganization was planned. By that time the majority shareholders had liquidated their holdings and moved on to other investments.

In March 2002, U. S. Aggregates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in May 2002 its assets and facilities were purchased by Staker & Parsons. The Monroc name was still in use in 2002 at the time for the company's Utah and Idaho operations.

UP Spur

Aerial photographs from 1937 show the railroad spur in place. The spur crossed the Bamberger mainline on a 90-degree crossing, with a connection between the Bamberger and the UP spur along the north side of this crossing. This connection allowed the Bamberger to serve and interchange rail cars loaded with sand and gravel, and rock.

The spur to the Utah Sand & Gravel quarry started from the east side of UP's North Yard, at the north end, at about 1300 North. The spur climbed a steep grade to the northeast and curved across Back Street to the Utah Sand & Gravel (later Monroc) quarry, at about 1700 North. The first 2,000 feet or so was still in place in early 2020, but is connected to UTA's Frontrunner track. The Beck Street crossing was three-tracks by 1970, but was gone by the time the first Google Earth image was taken in 1993.

Aerial photos dated 1993 show that the rail car loading portion of the quarry was essentially closed, and the railroad grade crossing of Beck Street removed.

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