US: Holcim has broken ground on the two-year US$95m modernisation project of its Hagerstown, Maryland cement plant. The project is expected to reduce the plant's environmental footprint and create hundreds of construction jobs in the process.

In addition to creating between 200 and 300 construction jobs during peak construction, Hagerstown plant manager Fernando Valencia said that the plant modernisation will decrease NO_x emissions by an estimated 60% and SO₂ emissions by about 48%. The project includes shortening the plant's existing rotating kiln, installing a new preheater tower over the top of the remaining kiln and installing an energy-efficient clinker cooler to replace the existing one, according to Holcim spokeswoman Robin DeCarlo.

The project comes after Holcim was hit with federal Clean Air Act violations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2013. Holcim and the plant's former owner, St Lawrence Cement, agreed to a settlement with the EPA and planned to invest US$20m or more to upgrade the Hagerstown plant to significantly reduce NO_x and SO₂ emissions. The settlement, which was reached in July 2013, required Holcim to reduce SO₂ emissions by 230t/yr and NO_x emissions by 92t/yr by 9 September 2016. That would limit the SO₂ emissions to 655t/yr and 0.82kg (1.8lb) of NO_x per 0.89t (1 short ton) of clinker produced.