ASPHALTopics | Summer 2014 | VOL 27 | NO3

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Special Profile Eddie DeToro, founder of OHMPA and first president by Steve Pecar It wasn’t Eddie DeToro’s intention to get into the family business. He had other plans. Growing up in Toronto’s west end, his interests were varied enough to stay away from his father John DeToro’s Advance Concrete Contracting Company. “I had interests in other areas,” he explains from the comfort of his Richmond Hill home. “My mother knew it too. She didn’t think that type of construction work was for me.” Through his diligence DeToro quickly made his own mark and by 1950, at the age of 21, became the youngest person ever to become a certified Licenced Electrician in Toronto. “I knew my stuff and I really liked that career, being an electrician,” he explains. But the inevitable was waiting around the corner. Eventually his father convinced LOCATED IN HUNTSVILLE (200 km. N of Metro Toronto, via Hwy 11/400) Serving Central Ontario Road Builders 1-800-461-5521 • wrhsand@hutchesonsand.com • 1-705-789-4457 52 OHMPA | ASPHALTOPICS HUTCHESON QUARRY (Granitic Meta-Gabbro) Suppliers of Quality: Your Source for FC (Friction Course) Stone in Central Ontario, North of Barrie • SP FC 1 • SP FC 2 • Ottawa-type sand • HL 3 and HL 4 modifi ed him to join his company. He tried it, and as they say, the rest is history. Those early days were marked with the back-breaking work of the construction industry with a pick and shovel being the earliest tools of the trade. He says that even though he was the son of the boss, his father felt young Eddie had to know all aspects of the business and that meant getting his hands dirty. “You cannot tell someone what to do unless you have done it yourself” was one of his father John’s favourite expressions. “It was tough, but it was good advice from my father,” he says now. “I ran my own crew – we started small, but I learned and we grew.” The senior DeToro caught on early that the future of paving was in hot mix asphalt and quickly left behind the use of concrete. The purchase of an asphalt plant in North York sealed their commitment to the technology and Eddie soon took on more responsibilities. The road where that first plant was located, Toro Road, is named after the family. Soon he started to take on more administrative responsibility for the company. “I was also around to do a little electrical work,” he laughs. “Those skills would always come in handy. A few times I was able to keep things running at the plant because of my background as an electrician.” DeToro admits that up until the early 1970s, there wasn’t a lot of discussion about an association for hot mix paving contractors. They needed a common objective to pull them together as they were all running in a different direction, but with the same common problems. So when the first meeting was called, he really didn’t know what he was getting into or what doors he was opening. Sure, he knew the bind that he was in. Everybody in the asphalt industry was up against it. But as president of his company, he was used to going it alone.
“It was new to us but we had to do something,” says DeToro. Looking back after 40 years, he now says it took a lot of gumption to pull it off. Along with faithful private clients, many companies had contracts with Metro Toronto and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, both large customers who many pavers depended on for work. The situation was delicate. They didn’t want to look like a bunch of young upstarts going up against the established order. Rather, the newly formed group was looking for some reasonableness and understanding, while hoping that together they had uncovered some new found clout and respect. It was 1974 and conflict raged in the Middle East again. Support in the west for Israel prompted Arab nations to place an embargo on oil shipments. As production was reduced, costs here jumped drastically with oil prices doubling within months and a tax increase jumping up some three per cent. Even though the embargo was lifted six months later, by that time the increase had reached 300 per cent and pavers were caught in the middle of the asphalt cement cost explosion. “It was the carry over work,” DeToro explains. “The jobs we quoted on and started in 1973 were now affected by the realities of the oil crunch in 1974. We were expected to live up to our job quotations and commitments, but it priced us right out of the market.” And so the meetings began. In the beginning they were just informal discussions. The first was four guys over lunch. Soon, though, hot mix producers realized they needed something more formal. In February of 1974 that something more happened with a formal meeting in Toronto. DeToro, along with John Ferzoco (Fermar Paving), Ken Rowe (Consolidated Sand & Gravel), Bud Carpenter (Dufferin Aggregates), Vince Butler (Kilmer Van Nostrand), Bob Lowndes (Armbro), Cosimo Crupi (D. Crupi & Sons), Val Raponi (Repac), and Joe Boccia (Pave-All) gathered for what would become the first meeting of the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association. “We had to be careful. These government organizations kept many of our businesses going, and we had good relationships with them,” he says. “But we didn’t think it was fair for us to absorb all of the increased costs and taxes. It could have broken us.” ›› COMBUSTION-INSTRUMENTATION SPECIALISTS Since 1969 · WE MAKE HEAT · Congratulations OHMPA on your 40 th Anniversary 589 Cannon St. East Hamilton, ON L8L 2G6 FALL <strong>2014</strong> 53
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Page 4 and 5: WE DARE TO BE DIFFERENT, SO YOU CAN
Page 6 and 7: Congratulations on 40 years of comm
Page 8 and 9: WE KNOW THE ROAD. WE’VE BEEN ON I
Page 10 and 11: THE STRAIGHT GOODS 10 OHMPA | ASPHA
Page 12 and 13: For approximately 30 years, Vacuum
Page 14 and 15: that there was no real difference i
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Page 18 and 19: For the last 15 years, consumers ha
Page 20 and 21: “When you don’t have to stop fo
Page 22 and 23: An all-Canadian connected car is un
Page 24 and 25: Ladies on a paver. Undated photo fr
Page 26 and 27: 26 OHMPA | ASPHALTOPICS HMA plant f
Page 28 and 29: Multiple Stress Creep Recovery proc
Page 30 and 31: The MSCR test uses the creep and re
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Page 34 and 35: Only Astec has the patented Double
Page 36 and 37: Pennsylvania State Route 462 in Lan
Page 38 and 39: The Ohio Department of Transportati
Page 40 and 41: One of OHMPA’s most significant c
Page 42 and 43: 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991-92 1986 La
Page 44 and 45: 1998 1999 2000 2001 1998 Teri McKib
Page 46 and 47: 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Page 48 and 49: Asphalt Cement Specifications in On
Page 50 and 51: currently known. It has been adopte
Page 54 and 55: 50 stability machines. Call, write,
Page 56 and 57: Albarrie’s Door Seals & Dryer/Dru
Page 58 and 59: The effect of polymer modification
Page 60 and 61: occasions when the results for one
Page 62 and 63: ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE A commitment
Page 64 and 65: Why OHMPA? We asked some of our mem
Page 66: THE LAST WORD by Gerry Chaput Succe

ASPHALTopics | Summer 2014 | VOL 27 | NO3

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