Ballast

Because of its hardness and angular shape, crushed quartzite is often used as railway ballast. Quartzite is a decorative stone and may be used to cover walls, as roofing tiles, as flooring, and stair steps. Its use for countertops in kitchens is expanding rapidly. It is harder and more resistant to stains than granite. Crushed quartzite is sometimes used in road construction.

Railroad ballast is one of the most demanding applications for crushed stone. Railroad ballast serves as a bed for railroad tracks and provides track stability, drainage, and support of significant loads carried by rail cars. In addition, it deters the growth of vegetation and allows for track maintenance to be performed more easily. Ballast is produced from natural deposits of granite, trap rock, quartzite, dolomite or limestone.

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Tower Sand & Gravel, LLC produces ballast and other track materials for shipment to customers within the western region, and has a dedicated Ballast Sales Team that can help you with your ballast needs from our facilities.

Quartzite is a metamorphosed sedimentary quartz sandstones. Deep in the earth, rocks are heated by molten. Pressure comes from layer upon layer of rocks. Heat and pressure may cause chemical changes within the parent rock. The parent rock, sandstone, now becomes a different rock, quartzite. Erosion and uplifting eventually bring the quartzite to the earth’s crust. This is the process of metamorphosis. Quartzite is far harder than its parent rock, sandstone.

Quartzite sand is used for septic tank covers and golf course bunkers. Dyed quartzite rocks are used to make jewelry and paperweights.   There is quartzite from Idaho that is so pure, that it can be used to make into computer chips.

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Common Uses:

  • Most commonly used for railroad tracks and railway systems.
  • Some types of drainage systems.
  • Can be used for driveways and carports.

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