POWER OF ATTORNEY


STATE OF COLORADO  )
                   )
COUNTY OF DENVER   )

         The undersigned director of Vulcan Materials Company, a New Jersey
corporation, hereby nominates, constitutes and appoints Robert A. Wason IV, Amy
M. Tucker and Jerry F. Perkins, or any of them, the true and lawful attorneys of
the undersigned to prepare, based on information provided by said director, and
sign the name of the undersigned to (i) any Form 3 required to be filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities and Exchange Act of
1934, as amended, for and on behalf of said director, (ii) any Form 4 required
to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for and on behalf of said director and any and
all amendments to said reports, and (iii) any Form 5 of said director to be
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934, as amended, for and on behalf of said director and any and all
amendments to said reports.

         The undersigned hereby grants to said attorneys full power of
substitution, resubstitution and revocation, all as fully as the undersigned
could do if personally present, hereby ratifying all that said attorneys or
their substitutes may lawfully do by virtue hereof.

         IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned director of Vulcan Materials
Company has executed this Power of Attorney this 17 day of October, 2008.




                                                     RICHARD T. O'BRIEN