The yard advantage
What a private terminal changes about your job
An aggregate supplier can be truck-fed, or draw from a shared public transload where it queues behind other shippers' cars. Neither one is the same business as owning the track.
No transload, no middleman margin
Our track is ours. Crushed granite comes off the quarry face at GMQ and onto our stockpile in one move, so the price you pay does not carry a public terminal's handling fee or a broker's markup.
Volume that does not run dry
A 90-car unit train puts thousands of tons on the ground at once. We hold deep, multi-gradation stockpiles, so a large state or federal pour is not waiting on tomorrow's delivery.
Insulated from the truck market
Union Pacific rail freight is contracted and stable. When driver capacity tightens or fuel spikes, our landed cost and our lead times move far less than a truck-fed competitor's.
No queue behind other shippers
A shared public transload serves whoever booked the window. On our own terminal we set the unload schedule around our customers' pours, not around someone else's cars.
One handling means less breakdown
Every extra transfer degrades aggregate and generates fines. Ours is a short chain — quarry, rail, our stockpile — so the gradation you specified is the gradation that arrives.
Certified weight, fast turnaround
State-certified Fairbanks scales on site weigh and ticket every load before it leaves, and the yard is laid out to cycle haulers quickly rather than stack them at the gate.
Specifications we supply to
The standards behind the products
Concrete pipe, precast structures and aggregate are all written to national specifications, layered with state DOT and project-specific requirements. We supply to whichever governs your work.
Primary source of standard specifications for concrete pipe and precast concrete products.
The other most common specification body for pipe and precast, governing highway work.
Railway loading and structure specifications for track-adjacent installations.
Design specifications Rinker products meet or contribute to.
Federal water infrastructure specifications for irrigation and reclamation work.
LaDOTD and ARDOT requirements, plus FAA gradations for airfield projects.
Concrete pipe supplier
Rinker Materials
One of the nation's largest manufacturers of reinforced concrete pipe, box, bridge and related stormwater and sanitary infrastructure products, operating more than 70 facilities across the United States and Eastern Canada.
Many Rinker facilities participate in the American Concrete Pipe Association's voluntary QCast program. Plants must meet the ACPA Plant Certification Manual and demonstrate compliance through third-party audits.
QCast is designed to give owners and agencies quality assurance beyond what ASTM and AASHTO standards alone indicate.
Rinker's internal systems are built around consistently meeting or exceeding national, local and project-specific quality requirements.
Plant inspections and audits performed by local agencies run alongside the national and state standards.
Over 70 facilities across the United States and Eastern Canada, in business more than 60 years.
Granite Mountain Quarries
In its own words, a leading producer of industrial and construction materials in the southeastern United States, built on quality, service, safety, community and family since its first stone was mined.
GMQ's mineral deposits of nepheline syenite are vast and amazingly consistent, which keeps product quality uniform load to load.
All stone is crushed and screened to the required sizes and specifications before it ships.
Aggregate produced for state jobs, asphalt, concrete, FAA projects, railroad maintenance and new construction.
SDS documentation is published for both nepheline syenite and sandstone.
Plants 1 and 2 in Little Rock, Plant 3 in Bryant, Plant 4 in North Little Rock.
Material comparison
Why crushed granite outlasts crushed limestone
Limestone is cheaper by the ton and it compacts well, which is why it dominates light residential work. Under traffic, water and load, the two materials behave very differently.
Consistent by geology
GMQ's nepheline syenite deposits are vast and remarkably uniform, so gradation and strength do not drift from load to load or season to season.
Qualified across demanding work
Our crushed granite is produced for state highway, asphalt, concrete, FAA airfield and railroad maintenance work — applications where softer carbonate aggregate is sometimes restricted or disfavored. Check the governing spec for your job and we will confirm compliance.
Drains and stays drained
Hard, angular crushed granite keeps its voids. Limestone degrades into fines that migrate and plug a drainage course, which is why it fails under ballast and base.
General properties of hard igneous aggregate against carbonate aggregate. Our stone is nepheline syenite from Granite Mountain in Central Arkansas — an igneous rock with a granite-like appearance and little to no free quartz, quarried and sold throughout the industry as crushed granite. Test values for a specific gradation are available on request.
Quality procedures
How the material is checked
Some of these procedures trace back nearly a century. Others keep evolving as manufacturing improves and project requirements change.
Three-Edge Bearing test
The industry's load-strength test for concrete pipe, with roots going back almost 100 years. Still the benchmark procedure for verifying pipe strength class.
Third-party plant audits
Independent auditors certify plants producing concrete pipe, manholes, box culverts, three-sided structures, precast elements and gaskets.
Gradation screening
Stone is crushed and screened to the gradation your specification calls for, then stockpiled by size at our Monroe terminal.
Certified weight per load
State-certified Fairbanks truck scales weigh and ticket every load before it leaves our yard.
Safety & stewardship
Safety is never taken for granted
At Granite Mountain Quarries the entire team focuses on safety at each stage in the process, and every facility is designed to get truckers in, loaded and out as quickly and safely as possible.
GMQ also embraces its role as a steward of the environment. Safety Data Sheets for nepheline syenite and sandstone are published and available on request.
GMQ has direct plant access to the UPRR, allowing coast-to-coast rail shipment — the same main line our Monroe terminal sits on.
Quarries sit near the Arkansas River and Interstates I-40 and I-30, shipping to dozens of states and Mexico.
Facilities are designed to get truckers in, loaded and out as quickly and safely as possible.
GMQ states a commitment to understanding and implementing its role as a steward of the environment.
Need the spec sheet?
Tell us the governing specification and gradation and we will confirm compliance and price the material.
Request a Quote