Al Frei Jr., president of Albert Frei & Sons, Inc., invited Gilpin County Commissioners for a presentation and tour at their conference room at 1 p.m., February 9, 2022, 35715 Highway 40, Evergreen, one mile east of the quarry at the top of Floyd Hill. He explained the quarry and fill operations, and then drove through the plant to see the quarry from a good vantage point, and view the fill area up close.

AFS is proposing the Spur Amendment on AFS property located in Clear Creek County north and east of where U.S. Highway 6 intersects with Interstate 70. The Spur Amendment is an extension of the existing AFS Walstrum Quarry that has supplied aggregate construction materials for Colorado’s industrial, commercial and residential uses since 1983.

The existing Walstrum Quarry permitted area covers 286 acres of land. The Spur Amendment adds 225 acres of quarry disturbance area and 239 acres of undisturbed area to serve as a buffer around the disturbance area.

“The purpose of the Spur Amendment is to extend the life of the existing Walstrum Quarry operation to allow the facility to continue to meet the construction material needs of Clear Creek County, the Front Range, and surrounding areas well into the future,” according to the website. “The Walstrum Quarry provides a significant amount of the Front Range’s aggregate supply.

It is the only active aggregate supply in Clear Creek County and one of only four large-scale sources of hard-rock aggregate on the Front Range. The name Spur Amendment is a nod to the mining and railroad history of the local area. In the 1870s, a three-foot narrow gauge line was built through Clear Creek Canyon to Idaho Springs and up to Silver Plume to serve the mines in the area.”

Al Frei, Jr., told the commissioners that citizens on Douglas Mountain and on the hill nearby have complained about the amendment. The family company will continue to work with its neighbors and plans to continue expansion of the buffer zone around it’s operations. They recently added 1200 acres of land formerly owned by the Goltra Family.

The quarry was founded by Frei’s father in 1983 with 124 acres of affected land and then expanded to 166 acres. The Company employs 97 professionals, and they have built enclosures for them that look like old mining shelters.

Product usages include concrete, asphalt, drainage, erosion control, decoration, landscaping, utilities, foundation materials for the growing Denver Metro Area. The company has provided more than 3 million tons of aggregate for the Lightrail projects in the Denver metro area and the coarse aggregate for the longest runway at Denver International Airport.

The company collaborated with the local school district for a football field. Football fields are going to turf, and that requires rock for drainage. AFS also provided aggregate that went into 60,000 cubic yards of concrete for the Ameristar Casino in Blackhawk.

During the 2013 floods, it was a 500-year-event, and it was a crazy and wild time, and the quarry was important, Frei said. All of the canyon roads, Clear Creek, Coal Creek and Boulder were severely damaged. The only way to get up to Highway 119 was through Highway 6.

The day after the flood, officials came to AFS and said we have to get the railroad going and our canyon roads open. The first week after the flood, AFS was the only quarry operational all the way to Estes Park.

Frei said AFS products are everywhere. As Denver grew, the area started to deplete its deposits. The area has four main quarries, the Ralston, the Morrison, I-70 at Heritage Square, and the Walstrum Quarry.

The Walstrum Quarry was the last Greenfield Quarry Permit approved in the Front Range and the last amended permit since 2002. The demand for construction aggregates continues to grow. These resources need to be located where there are existing disturbances and close to the demand.

In 2007, AFS received a 5.5 million yard grading permit from Gilpin County. The import of Fill will be complete this summer and final reclamation has begun.

AFS is working on reclamation of the quarry and the Gilpin Fill. They started final reclamation on the top of the quarry. Al Jr said, “He is very proud of our reclamation efforts thus far and thinks the 34 Bighorn sheep that now reside at the quarry are too.” He plans to continue these reclamation investments. They utilize many different environmental controls such as a water truck for unpaved roads, a sweeper for paved areas, enclosures around processing equipment and 50+ water sprays throughout the plant. Numerous Best Management Practices are used to comply with our Colorado Department of Public Health Permits.

The metropolitan area is bringing in rock from Fairplay and Cheyenne. “I don’t like it when they bring rock from out of state,” Frei said. “It’s 150 miles one way.” The cost of the transportation drives up the cost of the rock and many of the communities are tired of existing congestion and increased cost of building materials. If materials continue to be brought to market from further away sources, more trucks will be put on the roads in order to bring these resources into the market. It makes sense to amend existing operations.

Regarding electric vehicles for the quarry, Frei said they have a hybrid wheel loader that has a hybrid drivetrain. Its emissions are half compared to other models. “The industry is moving in that direction and AFS plans on future investment of this technology.”

After the presentation, Commissioners Sandy Hollingsworth and Web Sill toured the quarry. Commissioner Hollingsworth said that Al described the generational family business. Frei’s have implemented many loading efficiencies with repurposed grain silos which lessen idling truck time to reduce fuel use.

“We were shown the post-mining restoration areas of terraced hillsides planted with native grasses and shrubs which creates habitat for bighorn sheep. The big trucks and loaders were every little kid’s dream.

“For a quarry taking materials from the earth for gravel and rock benefitting people, the areas we saw were surprisingly tidy and appear to be mindful of limiting water and air impacts.

For more information, go to https://www.walstrumspuramendment.com/.