Tracks and Treads - Finning Canada

Of course, that’s not the way
santorel-
li’s elders conducted business when they
started Grandview Blacktop in November
1969. Phil santorelli (Nick’s father) and
his brother
antonio were members of the
city of Vancouver’s paving crew when they
approached a few other siblings with the idea
of branching out on their own.
eventually, the next generation of
santorellis would enter the fray, including
Nick and his cousin John, now the general
manager of the company. “We’re
prime examples of child labour,”
Nick says with a laugh.
“We used to work every summer
as kids.” after high school and
post-secondary school, the second
generation entered the business. “We were
strictly a small asphalt paving company that
did driveways and repair work. that’s how
we started out,” he says. “In the late 1970s,
we grew into the commercial market.”
Grandview Blacktop expanded the scope of
its work, taking on much bigger projects, such
as shopping centres and highway paving, in
addition to acquiring its own asphalt plant.
as it grew, the company clearly needed
to add reliable equipment. the santorellis
owned some
caterpillar equipment, but
cat
pavers were new to them. Nick santorelli decided
to look at
cat, and de Boer, who had
always been in periodic contact with the
staff, jumped at the chance to show the B.c.
paving family what a cat paver could do.
“th
e strong economy in the Lower Mainland
drove them to the point where they needed
a new or next-to-new prime machine – they
have that much work going on,” de Boer says
of the paving company, which now employs
almost 40 people.
de Boer says that the santorellis really did
their homework and shopped around. With
their experience in the business, they knew
what they needed to get out of a new paver.
“We wanted to see what was out there, to investigate
what was new on the market,” says
santorelli. “the 655d had the weight that we
were content with (approximately 50,000
pounds). It had the power. We felt that that
the machine would be able to complete over
95% of our work.”
One feature that helped sell the
aP655d
cat to Grandview was the option of a steel
“The 655D had the weight
that we were content with.
It had the power.”
track. rubber
tracks had proven to be problematic
in the past when Grandview was
involved in tough jobs that required the company
to do trench paving or work over train
tracks. “We needed something rugged,” santorelli
explains. “We were adamant that we
had to go with steel tracks.” the machine ar-
rived in July, and on that first day, management
called in all of the paver operators, the
mechanics and the superintendent for an
orientation on the new
cat. santorelli says it
was soon ready to go and they tested out the
aP655d by paving a parking lot.
“the
first time out, it did atight 700-tonne
parking lot in one day,” says santorelli. “the
boys were overwhelmed but they managed
the day.” In the next few days, the crew did
some narrow paving and road widening.
santorelli’s operators thought the machine
was great, but they wanted to see it in action
in a wide-open space, so they put it to the
test by doing a large overlay in a subdivision.
It was a hit with santorelli’s operators.“the
boys now want it to be their everyday paver,”
says santorelli.
He explains that a good crew is crucial
to successful paving, which is sometimes
a combination of art and science.
the complex process involves lots of quality
control as materials have to be per-
fectly
blended to spec before the actual
paving begins. and the machine, he says,
can only do what the operators allow it to do.
“You have to have good operators and good
screed men who understand slopes and elevations
and high points and low points,” he
says. “If they understand that, they can
control the machine.”
some machines are better than others
and the Grandview Blacktop crew and
the new
aP655d have married well
so far. santorelli knows this is just the
beginning for the latest addition to the company’s
fleet of four operational pavers. the
cat is their starter, the equivalent of the ace
of a pitching staff that sets the tone for the
rest. santorelli expects it will be responsible
for about 75% of Grandview’s work and,
ultimately, he would like to see it in the rotation
for about 10 years, if not longer.
He admits that in the first few weeks
the staff used the paver, he gained a much
better understanding of what all the fuss
was about when it comes to the cat brand.
“John had commented to me the other day,
now he knows why all the big companies
choose
cat,” santorelli says. “the support is
second to none. they’ve
been talking to John
on a daily basis just to make sure everything’s
Ok. It’s not just selling the equipment; it’s the
support. cat’s made us believers.”
santorelli says that when it comes time
to add another machine to the Grandview
Blacktop fleet, Finning has earned the right
to get the first phone call – or e-mail, or text
message, or whatever happens to be the latest
technology available to make a deal.
www.finning.ca Fall 2008 • tracks & treads 35