Our History
Laurence Silvi, Sr. founded the Company in 1947. Its genesis as a concrete supplier lies in the housing boom that followed the end of the Second World War. The first Silvi ready-mix operation was started in 1957 in Morrisville, Pennsylvania.
Sons John and Larry began running the family business in the 1980’s which today employs approximately 300 people. The Silvi Group Companies consists of Silvi Concrete Products, which operates 7 ready-mix concrete plants (4 in Pennsylvania, 3 in New Jersey); Sahara Sand with 3 sand mines in New Jersey; Riverside Construction Materials, a cement importer with its deep water terminal on the Delaware river in Bristol, Pennsylvania; and Gibraltar Rock, which owns a greenfield hard rock quarry near Boyertown, Pennsylvania, about to begin operation in 2009.
The Silvi’s strategy is to build large central mix plants close enough to one another so that they compliment each other. The plant located next to their corporate headquarters in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania runs up to forty trucks and can produce over 250 yards per hour. With the help of another plant of the same magnitude in the area, Silvi Concrete recently delivered over 2700 yards of concrete for a warehouse floor in just over five hours. It is not unusual for them to have two 1000+ yards pours going at the same time on the same day. The Silvi fleet is comprised solely of front discharge mixers. They eliminate the need for a man to hold and guide the chute and have a long, sixteen foot reach. Many of the trucks have fiberglass barrels which don’t transfer heat or cold as quickly as conventional drums while in transit. The concrete stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. They also allow you to put more concrete on each truck cutting the delivery cost per yard you pay. With well over a hundred trucks, Silvi Concrete can handle the surges that occur in this business on a daily basis.
Silvi Concrete has long been recognized as a pioneer in the ready mix industry. They are usually the first supplier in their marketplace to explore the use of new and innovative products. They take pride in tackling high volume projects with extremely rigid specification and are always on the cutting edge of technology. It’s no wonder they are the benchmark used by most concrete contractors to measure other producers
Riverside Construction Materials located at 7900 Radcliffe street in Bristol Pennsylvania owned by the Silvi brothers John and Larry, is one of the largest cement importers in the Mid-Atlantic states, and is one of the few independent cement importers in the entire United States. Two existing storage silo's are currently active at the facility. A third silo is under construction and will be operational by fall of 2008 and will bring our total capacity to 130,000 tons, much more than any of the local domestic producers, and is enough to produce approximately 500,000 cubic yards of concrete. Riverside only imports the highest quality cement which is low in total alkali’s, and is ground and blended to their exact specifications, giving the cement superior strengths and faster set times. Riverside cement is also approved for Department of Transportation projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.
Riverside also has a state-of-the-art conveyor unloading system that is presently being used to unload Stone, Gypsum, and Salt.
Riverside Industrial Complex is a 68 acre gated industrial park with a security entrance. There is over 400,000 square feet of existing multi-tenanted industrial warehouse and office space in the park. The Heavy Industrial (M-2) zoning in the Township of Bristol, allows for a wide variety of permitted industrial uses including rail service. What's more, Riverside has 22 acres of surplus land on which approximately 350,000 square feet of bulk warehouse space can be constructed on a build-to-suit basis. Utilities that service the park include municipal water & sewer and natural gas & electric supplied by PECO. Situated between Philadelphia and New York City. Riverside has easy access to all major highways and is just minutes away form the PA & NJ Turnpikes, Routes 1 & 13 and I-95 & I-195. Riverside has very aggressive leasing rates and will entertain leasing space on either a long or short-term basis. Real Estate Brokers are invited and protected.
Gibraltar Rock located in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County Pennsylvania, is a future hard rock mining site for crushed stone products, owned by the Silvi Group Companies, that will supply the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware markets. Centrally located between Philadelphia and Pottstown Pennsylvania, Gibraltar will supply a high grade Argillite construction aggregate stone to the Concrete and Asphalt industries, as well as contractors building roads and bridges, commercial buildings, and houses. Stone products produced will be include ¼ inch stone, 3/8 inch stone, ¾ inch stone, 1 ½ inch stone, Ballast stone, Gabion stone, Modified stone in all sizes, and also screenings.
Gibraltar Rock is an environmentally sensitive company, continually striving to alter the landscape as little as possible while mining. Gibraltar Rock is balancing the desire for growth, with the need for preservation.
The Sahara Sand Companies supplies quality sand and gravel products to the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware markets. Sahara Sand is reputed to have the highest quality concrete sand in the state of New Jersey with a consistent Fineness Modulus of approximately 2.75. With locations in Central New Jersey (Sahara Sand of Eagleswood) and Southern New Jersey (Sahara Sand of Franklin and Sahara Sand of Monroe II) and convenient access to major roadways such as the New Jersey Turnpike, the Atlantic City Expressway, and the Garden State Parkway, Sahara Sand is a good choice to minimize transportation costs. The Sahara plants process and sell a wide variety of products including Concrete Sand, Mason Sand, Decorative Gravel in sizes ranging from ¼ “ to 1 ½ “, Bank Run Sand, Fill Dirt, New Jersey I materials, Golf Course Sand, and even Recycled Crushed Concrete.
Sahara Sand is an environmentally sensitive company, continually striving to alter the landscape as little as possible while mining, and completely reclaiming their properties for the public’s use after the mining is complete. Sahara is balancing the desire for growth, with the need for preservation.