South of the West Seattle Bridge, Ash Grove Cement now offering community tours

(Photo courtesy Ash Grove Cement)

The industrial facilities on the Duwamish River often evoke a great amount of curiosity, and sometimes concern. Unless you work at one, they tend to be a mystery. One plant is offering to lift the veil a bit; we heard from plant manager Andy at Ash Grove Cement, just on the other side of the river and south of the West Seattle Bridge, asking if we could let you know they’re offering community tours starting next month:

When: Thursday afternoons from 1-2 pm. Starting January 2025.
Who: Anyone (above the age of 12) who is interested in learning more about what Ash Grove Cement does. Anyone under 18 needs to be accompanied by an adult. We can accept up to 15 people per tour.
What: Depending on age, a full tour of the plant, including brief presentation on the cement-making process.
Why: Ash Grove Cement is the only cement plant in Washington state that takes the raw materials to produce cement. There has been a cement plant n the location for almost 100 years and the company would like to spend time with the community to allow them to see what we do firsthand.
How to RSVP: Reply to Allen Block, Environmental Manager, at allen.block@ashgrove.com. We’d like around 1 week’s notice.

Like other industrial facilities in the area, Ash Grove (3801 East Marginal Way S.) is regulated by a variety of agencies. One of them, Puget Sound Clean Air, has just extended the public-comment period for a requested change in how Ash Grove operates, involving the burning of tires as part of its kiln fuel (an industry alternative to fossil fuels) – you can read about it here.

24 Replies to "South of the West Seattle Bridge, Ash Grove Cement now offering community tours"

  • Aron December 27, 2024 (12:02 pm)

    Regarding the “burning of tires”, Mike Rowe visited this plant during an episode of Dirty Jobs in 2005-06 (I believe) and one of the processes shown were tires being top-fed into the rotating kiln. 

    Did that process stop and now being talked about again? 

    • WSB December 27, 2024 (12:45 pm)

      If you read the linked page, they’ve continued to burn tires, but at a certain level in keeping with a federal regulation that has changed.

    • Peter Lemon Jello December 28, 2024 (10:02 am)

      I was the Electrical General Foreman on this project and I continued, for years, to perform work for LaFarge. As far as I know they ceased using the mid kiln injection system not long after it was commissioned due to not being able to meet emissions requirements.

      • Peter Lemon Jello December 30, 2024 (9:59 am)

        Sorry,  I missed that this was Ashgrove! The view down that central alley was so familiar that I just blanked out that I was talking about the wrong plant!

  • Question Authority December 27, 2024 (4:08 pm)

    Please don’t get all up in a tizzy about this business, what it produces and the environment over this article.  Every part of your life involves Cement, it’s all around us whether you like it or not.

    • SoLongDelridge December 28, 2024 (1:21 am)

      Always comedy gold from “Question Authority.”

      Every part of your life involves Cement, it’s all around us whether you like it or not.

      • Question Authority December 28, 2024 (4:27 pm)

        Did you write that after traveling on a cement based road or while sitting in your cement based house?

        • K December 29, 2024 (7:05 am)

          Concrete, not cement.  

          • Question Authority December 29, 2024 (4:14 pm)

            Back to basic chemistry for you, concrete is made with cement.

    • Jay December 28, 2024 (10:02 am)

      This plant hasn’t produced cement in 15 years or so.

    • MsamInWSea December 28, 2024 (10:56 pm)

      I agree whether we like this or not concrete is a part of our lives!!

  • R. Clark December 27, 2024 (4:39 pm)

    Did anyone find out what they’re using the robot dog for?

    • Question Authority December 27, 2024 (5:36 pm)

      Could be used for security and/or to inspect areas that humans can’t due to adverse site conditions.  Actually it’s pretty cool if it could save from having to put your body where it doesn’t belong and could be crushed, burnt or ground into mush.

  • Fetch December 27, 2024 (4:56 pm)

    Fetch.

  • Kersti Muul December 27, 2024 (6:21 pm)

    Ack! It’s the quadruped alien!I still have nightmares about those 😝

  • Kersti Muul December 27, 2024 (7:02 pm)

    That’s Spot. It’s an AI robot for inspections on-site 

  • Beanie December 27, 2024 (10:33 pm)

    Cool! Thanks for sharing this! I’ve always wanted to tour the Nucor plant also, any chance anyone knows if they do tours? Couldn’t find info on their websites. fascinating stuff! 

    • Peter Lemon Jello December 28, 2024 (10:03 am)

      Nucor offers tours every Friday. They’re very open about the plant.

  • 1994 December 27, 2024 (10:38 pm)

    How about offering a tour on Saturdays once a month?

    • Derp December 28, 2024 (12:22 am)

      Why not suggest that to them directly, instead of on here. Looks like your complaining about a company trying to do a good thing for the neighborhood. 

    • Andy January 9, 2025 (5:08 pm)

      Please contact Allen. We could do one off’s but as the management are normally off on Saturdays :-) thanks

  • 22blades December 28, 2024 (9:38 am)

    I love open houses! I’m waiting for SPU to show some of the inaccessible parts of the city’s infrastructure. 

  • anonyme December 28, 2024 (12:02 pm)

    The robot dog reminds me of a horrifying episode of “Black Mirror”.  Creepy.

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