Contractor to Expand Near LaPorte

(photo courtesy The Times of Northwest Indiana)

Griffith-based Walsh & Kelly Inc. is planning to expand its production operations. Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report the company is building a new asphalt plant outside LaPorte.

Walsh & Kelly already has five asphalt plants in Griffith, Valparaiso, Lowell, South Bend and Goshen. The publication says the new facility will be built on a more-than-20-acre site on County Road 450 North west of State Road 39.

John Wall, a project manager for the company, told The Times the goal of the plant is to increase the amount of work in the area by reducing transportation costs and maintaining quality.

"’We can service that market from afar, but this new location will allow us to be more competitive and a little more aggressive in the marketplace for the municipal work and the state jobs and some of the private commercial work that we do," said Wall. ‘"Logistics are what keeps the economy moving. You need to get goods transported from one place to the other and that’s really what we’re talking about being able to do that better and more efficiently,"

The new plant will be able to make 300 to 400 tons of asphalt per hour. The publication says Walsh & Kelly repaves roads for the Indiana Department of Transportation and local municipalities.