Various cement plants in the Lehigh Valley, heralded as the “cradle of the cement industry in the United States,” will have a role in February 2016 when Portland Cement Association (PCA), located in Skokie, Ill., celebrates its 100th anniversary.

A video was recently filmed featuring local present and former cement plants. The Sept. 14-16 filming took place at LafargeHolcim Cement, Whitehall; Essroc Cement, Nazareth; Saylor Cement Kilns, Coplay; and Hercules Cement, Stockertown, owned by Buzzi Unicem USA.

A side visit took the visitors to the newly opened Northampton Area Middle School, where its halls are named after past and present cement plants.

The videos included interviews with cement plant managers Lorraine Faccenda, Lafarge, and Natacha Lago, Essroc; David Nepereny, Buzzi Unicem USA board chairman; and Ed Pany, curator of Atlas Cement Company Memorial Museum.

Pany coordinated the effort. He is an expert in cement history in the region, its roots and those who worked at and headed the numerous plants.

The three-day stop focused on the significance of local cement plants in shaping the country. Atlas Cement Company provided cement for the Empire State Building, the Panama Canal, the Lincoln Tunnel and many others.

“I’m impressed,” commented Patti Flescher, PCA senior director of communications, on the visit to the Lehigh Valley, noting the specific local cement influence to the industry.

The museum and kilns have long been recognized by the PCA, which has 27 companies representing more than 80 percent of the cement capacity in the United States.

The video on cement manufacturing locally will be shown at the annual World of Concrete Exposition Feb. 1-5, 2016, at the Las Vegas Convention Center and at other various events in 2016.

Bruce McCintosh, consultant for the project, said local cement plants have embraced technology, and innovative measures taken at the plants bode well for their future.

Pany’s father, Anthony, worked at the Atlas Cement Company for four decades, rising from laborer to a supervisory post. As a result, the cement industry is personal to Pany. But it is also a tribute to the thousands of employees who made one of the greatest products this country has manufactured.