Bill Sandbrook: “We Don’t Wait for Orders” — A 9/11 Story

When we think of concrete as the foundation of our nation, it’s not just about the material. It’s the people in our industry that truly make the difference.

William “Bill” Sandbrook was president and CEO of aggregate producer Tilcon New York, Inc., (an Oldcastle company), running their New York and New Jersey operations, when the terrorists struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

According to Sandbrook, there was a personal loss that day. “I lost four firefighters from my very small town of Washingtonville, NY that day,” he says. Sandbrook saw the devastation, and the overwhelming rescue/recovery task at hand. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Bill’s military training kicked in. He contacted then Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s and NY Governor George Pataki’s offices and offered Tilcon’s equipment and services.

By noon the next day, Sandbrook had arranged for 100 front-loaders, backhoes, and dump trucks, as well as 200 volunteers, to answer the call. The equipment was given a police escort across the George Washington Bridge and staged on the Avenue of the Americas. The equipment was moved into the Ground Zero area that night to help clear debris, remove rubble, and support search-and-recovery efforts, including clearing streets near the South Tower and One Liberty Plaza of debris and vehicles. Tilcon also provided dust masks, work gloves, hard hats, safety glasses, reflective safety vests and t-shirts to help emergency workers.

In an interview some years after the event, Sandbrook said, “It was like liberating Europe during World War II. People were lined all the way down the Henry Hudson Parkway with signs and stuff. We were the first, biggest — and when I say biggest, these loaders are big — tangible response to that tragedy.”

Sandbrook himself worked the bucket brigade and slept, when he could, in his Ford Explorer — the only private vehicle allowed in the ruins. Besides the response at the scene, Oldcastle employees donated $800,000 to the American Red Cross, the NY Times 9/11 Neediest Fund, and the United Way.

For his efforts at Ground Zero, Sandbrook was named the Rockland County, New York, 2002 Business Leader of the Year; the Dominican College 2002 Man of the Year; and the American Red Cross 2003 Man of the Year for southern New York.

In 2011, Sandbrook was named Vice Chairman, President, and CEO of U.S. Concrete. In that capacity, he served on the NRMCA Board of Directors and was elected NRMCA Chairman in 2019.

In that same interview, Sandbrook said, “Within 24 hours, a private citizen of a public company amassed that amount of equipment and had it there. Nobody told me. Nobody even asked me. That kind of response is what makes America different. We don’t wait for orders.”