News Pits & Quarries
OSSGA’s Progressive Rehabilitation Award winner announced

The Judges Choice on its first Progressive Rehabilitation Award from the Ontario Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association (OSSGA) has been named, recognizing the ongoing efforts of individual operators to progressively rehabilitate their sites per their site plans.

The accolade for this first award of its kind goes to the Cambridge Aggregates/Heidelberg Materials North Dumfries Pit.

The objective for the North Dumfries Pit rehabilitation was twofold: to rehabilitate the 54-hectare pit floor back to agricultural condition and to rehabilitate the remaining 18.1 hectares of extraction area to a natural environment condition featuring Oak Savannah, Woodland, Prairie and native grassland ecological communities. The team has successfully returned 12.5 hectares of the pit floor to a healthy agricultural condition that has since been used to grow soybeans and cash crops.

“Cambridge Aggregates in partnership with Heidelberg Materials is pleased to receive its first progressive rehabilitation award for the North Dumfries Pit. We have worked closely with the landowner to extract the high-quality aggregate materials from the property and return the area back to a productive agricultural condition as quickly as possible,” says Kevin Hurley, Area General Manager, Heidelberg Materials. “This project showcases how the aggregate industry can achieve successful agricultural rehabilitation in a very short period of time.”

Currently, the team is in Phase 4 of its progressive rehabilitation plan, which began with the rehabilitation of three hectares and the grading of the setback area. Subsequent portions of Phase 4 were to be completed by fall 2022.

“OSSGA promotes excellence among its members by encouraging them to efficiently run their operations, responsibly manage the land they work on, and actively participate in and contribute to their communities,” says Norm Cheesman, Executive Director of OSSGA. “The 2022 Industry Recognition Award winners have surpassed OSSGA’s expectation in fulfilling those objectives.”