Expansion of new cement plant in Mitchell delayed

MITCHELL, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – Texas-based Lehigh Hanson Inc. says the start of the $600 million expansion of its Lehigh Cement Co. plant in Mitchell in Lawrence County will be delayed. The company says construction could be delayed by up to one year due to uncertainties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a release, the Mitchell plant will continue to finalize the engineering and delivery of equipment but will limit the amount of site work during the remainder of 2020 and will move it into early 2021. Postponing construction has shifted the startup target date, from September 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.

As previously reported, Lehigh broke ground for the new plant in October 2019. Since then, activity has mainly been focused on site preparation in advance of structural assembly.

 “A construction project of this magnitude has numerous components, such as supply chain certainty, material deliveries and, importantly, worker availability. These are tied to precise construction scheduling timelines, all of which have been negatively impacted,” said Jerry Miller, Mitchell plant manager.