ASPHALTopcs | Summer 2017 | VOL 30 | NO 2
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SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> | <strong>VOL</strong><strong>30</strong> | <strong>NO</strong>2<br />
RUNWAY 05-23 | 10<br />
Fast track rehabilitation<br />
OAPC SCHOLARSHIPS | 26<br />
Recruiting skilled workers<br />
EUROBITUME & APA | <strong>30</strong><br />
Friends across borders
Upcycle: (verb) \uhp-sahy-kuh l\:<br />
To reuse material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality than the original:<br />
Ultradrum A.R.E. 50% UltraRAP 70% MegaRAP 100%<br />
It seems any plant these days can recycle, but have you ever asked<br />
about the quality of the mix produced? With higher RAP percentages<br />
comes the problems of degradation of the mix.<br />
That’s why Gencor developed the innovative UltraRAP and MegaRAP<br />
concepts, which can process 70% and 100% recycle without superheating<br />
and degrading the quality of the mix. The result is a noticeably superior<br />
and consistent mix.<br />
So if you want superior high RAP capability, don’t just recycle ... Upcycle.<br />
Call Gencor today and learn how you can “Upcycle”.<br />
407.290.6000 or visit www. gencor.com
Cover photo: iStockphoto.com<br />
© <strong>2017</strong> All Rights Reserved.<br />
The official publication of the<br />
Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council,<br />
ASPHALTopics<br />
is published three times a year.<br />
Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council<br />
365 Brunel Rd., Unit 4, Mississauga, ON, L4Z 1Z5<br />
Tel: 905.507.3707 | Fax: 905.507.3709<br />
Email: info@onasphalt.org | Website: www.onasphalt.org<br />
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Representative<br />
Editor<br />
Design &<br />
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Lara Henry<br />
647.638.8294<br />
larahenry@sympatico.ca<br />
pdplante.com inc.<br />
info@pdplante.com<br />
table of contents<br />
Chairman’s Corner | 05<br />
Letters from the ED | 07<br />
Marcom Matters | 09<br />
Fast track rehabilitation at Pearson | 10<br />
Partners in Quality hits<br />
the mark with municipalities | 18<br />
BaP update | 21<br />
OAPC service awards | 24<br />
Update on Roads Scholars<br />
and Scholarship Program | 26<br />
Paving the way with APA and Eurobitume | <strong>30</strong><br />
Unsung Heroes | 33<br />
Technically Speaking | 34<br />
Environmental Essentials | 37<br />
Industry News | 38<br />
The Last Word | 42<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 3
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CHAIRMAN’S<br />
CORNER<br />
by Mike McLean<br />
Chairman, OAPC<br />
Challenges, change, opportunities<br />
and growth<br />
Welcome to the first official Chairman’s Corner, and<br />
a special thanks to our previous OHMPA leaders who<br />
have guided our association along its journey to the<br />
new Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council of ORBA.<br />
As we move forward from Donn Bernal’s successful<br />
OHMPA presidency, our OAPC executive, directors,<br />
great staff and ORBA leaders have been working diligently<br />
on our group’s transition, while simultaneously working<br />
on solutions to the challenges we are facing.<br />
The cause and effect of our low bid system, road budget<br />
constraints, the state of our aging infrastructure, design<br />
and Superpave issues, specification challenges, insufficient<br />
pavement preservation programs and the recent quality<br />
concerns have resulted in an overwhelming proliferation<br />
of specifications to emerge in our province, rendering it<br />
the most prodigious and complicated of any province.<br />
All these different specifications, originally designed to raise<br />
the bar, are making it more difficult to have uniform quality<br />
standards across the province and will likely contribute to<br />
logistics and tankage issues, less use of recycled materials,<br />
possible misinterpretation, and costly mistakes down the<br />
road. On top of these concerns, the Auditor General’s<br />
report and the MTO’s follow-up Action Plan have put an<br />
increased spotlight on the quality of asphalt pavements<br />
in Ontario.<br />
On the heels of the hard work and direction from the<br />
Quality of Asphalt Task Force, and our recent amalgamation<br />
with ORBA, OAPC launched a new initiative this spring.<br />
With the guiding support of Global Public Affairs, we held<br />
two Quality of Asphalt forums on March 29 and April 4 to<br />
help highlight the scope of threats and concerns identified<br />
by our stakeholders and members, and to provide<br />
us with recommendations to help guide our future.<br />
Preliminary recommendations have been made to<br />
promote increased collaboration with owners, to develop<br />
more uniform specifications, encourage owner oversight,<br />
promote a fair and competitive market through a level<br />
and transparent playing field, to deliver value to all our<br />
customers, to develop a roadmap and critical path for the<br />
supply of quality asphalt pavements, and deliver long-term<br />
value that we, as taxpayers, all deserve.<br />
Above and beyond the aforementioned challenges, some<br />
of the relationships we have with our industry stakeholders<br />
have also come into question. There has been a lot of talk<br />
lately about the foundation and materials of our pavements,<br />
yet we all know that the true foundation to any worthwhile<br />
relationship is trust.<br />
We have an opportunity to develop a better and more<br />
collaborative working relationship with our members and<br />
partners, to be more responsible and accountable as an<br />
industry, to communicate better than ever before, and to<br />
work on building the trust that will keep us all focused on<br />
mutually beneficial continuous improvements.<br />
As ORBA continues to promote and support the growth<br />
of Ontario’s infrastructure industry, OAPC continues to<br />
advocate for excellence in asphalt pavements. Together,<br />
we need to be the voice of asphalt authority in Ontario.<br />
Together, through our positive working relationships, we<br />
can build a stronger and more sustainable quality of asphalt<br />
pavement system in Ontario, and help reset the ground rules<br />
future generations can be guided by and will be proud of,<br />
as Ontario rides on us.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 5
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LETTERS<br />
FROM THE ED<br />
by Vince Aurilio<br />
Executive Director, OAPC<br />
Opportunity knocks<br />
As our industry works hard to address a number<br />
of shared challenges, one thing is well-defined – the<br />
need for continuous improvement. I know I’ve spoken<br />
about this topic before, but we can still do better.<br />
I strongly believe that one of the areas needing<br />
improvement is the working relationships with MTO<br />
and the municipalities. This should collectively be<br />
one of our top priorities – we need to be in a position<br />
to trust each other. I see this as a real opportunity to<br />
recognize that there are issues and to make every effort<br />
to fix these problems.<br />
Continuous improvement also means talking to our<br />
colleagues across the globe about common concerns<br />
and taking proactive steps to learn from each other.<br />
In this issue of ASPHALTopics, we are taking the<br />
opportunity to reach out to our friends in the U.S.<br />
and in Europe at the Asphalt Paving Alliance and<br />
Eurobitume to share information and hear what is<br />
going on in their world. It is envisioned that this is<br />
just the start and I hope that we can continue with<br />
this outreach in future issues of our great magazine.<br />
Speaking of friends in the U.S., I’m sure everyone is<br />
very familiar with our partnership with the Asphalt<br />
Institute. This relationship has been in place since<br />
1999 and is an excellent example of how technology<br />
transfer has benefitted our industry. The plan is to<br />
continue to work with the Asphalt Institute to find<br />
ways to address some of the challenges with concerns<br />
about the quality of asphalt in Ontario.<br />
There are great examples of how this outreach has<br />
helped asphalt practitioners across North America<br />
learn about new technologies. Stone Mastic Asphalt<br />
(SMA) and Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) are two significant<br />
advancements in hot mix asphalt technology over the<br />
last three decades that now play an important role<br />
in our industry. The increased use of RAP in Japan is<br />
another example of how we have learned about what<br />
other asphalt communities around the world are doing.<br />
The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA)<br />
has done a tremendous job of working with their<br />
international partners in these areas with several<br />
scan tours.<br />
We’re not alone. It’s good to know that we can work<br />
together with our friends and partners in Ontario, the<br />
U.S and across the world to address our challenges<br />
and find ways to continually improve.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 7
MARCOM<br />
MATTERS<br />
by Abigail Wright Pereira<br />
Marketing and Communications Director, OAPC<br />
Knowledge is power<br />
Since its inception, the Ontario Asphalt Pavement<br />
Council (formerly the Ontario Hot Mix Producers<br />
Association) has been dedicated to excellence in<br />
asphalt pavements and providing the industry with<br />
the education needed to achieve quality. In light of the<br />
quality issues facing the industry, it became apparent<br />
to the Board that in order to raise the bar in quality,<br />
the association needed to do its part in stepping up<br />
its educational endeavours.<br />
During a strategic planning retreat in January 2016,<br />
the Board resolved to expand OHMPA’s educational<br />
offerings, mandating over the next three years to begin<br />
a series of technical transfer workshops, and lunch and<br />
learn webinars, and to update and add to the ABC<br />
brochure series and fact sheets.<br />
Just over half way into <strong>2017</strong> and the three-year strategic<br />
plan, OAPC’s efforts are realizing results. On February 16,<br />
<strong>2017</strong>, OAPC offered its first technical transfer workshop –<br />
Enhanced Durability through In-Place Density – in<br />
partnership with the Asphalt Institute (AI), the Ontario<br />
Good Roads Association (OGRA), the Ontario Road<br />
Builders Association (ORBA) and the Municipal Engineers<br />
Association (MEA), bringing in 245 attendees. During the<br />
planning of the event back in October 2016, we thought<br />
we would do well to have 100 in attendance.<br />
Then, on February 26 during the Sunday afternoon<br />
session at the OGRA Conference held at the Fairmont<br />
Royal York Hotel, we introduced the ABCs of PGACs –<br />
Choosing the Right Performance Graded Asphalt<br />
Cement in Ontario at the Asphalt Technology 101<br />
seminar. The seminar was subsequently developed<br />
into a free series of five webinars: Asphalt Paving 101,<br />
Asphalt Plants 101, Asphalt Plant and Paving – Sampling<br />
and Testing 101, Asphalt Plant and Paving Inspection 101,<br />
and Asphalt Cement 101 presented from March 6 to<br />
May 15. Recordings of the webinars remain available<br />
on the OAPC website.<br />
Once again, attendance exceeded expectations. The<br />
first webinar, Asphalt Paving 101, presented on March 6,<br />
drew in 158 registrants. This was a record number of<br />
registrants for a single OAPC webinar – so many, that<br />
we had to upgrade our webinar service account to<br />
accommodate more than 100 attendees. In total, 594<br />
people registered for the webinars, 449 attended and<br />
out of those who attended, 59 per cent were members,<br />
38 per cent were from municipalities and three per cent<br />
were from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO).<br />
Several attendees reported that multiple people viewed<br />
the webinar off of one computer, making the reach of<br />
the webinar series potentially even wider. Feedback<br />
from participants was overwhelmingly positive and the<br />
underlying message was “We need more of this!”<br />
Industry and owners are hungry for the knowledge<br />
that will empower them to better do their jobs. OAPC<br />
is intent on feeding the masses to satiate that hunger.<br />
This fall, in addition to the planning of a second technical<br />
transfer workshop, OAPC will offer a webinar on best<br />
practices in the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP).<br />
Enclosed in this edition of ASPHALTopics is the recently<br />
published ABCs of RAP, and the ABCs of Superpave will<br />
be featured at the November <strong>30</strong> Fall Asphalt Seminar.<br />
Just like a five-star restaurant, we intended to keep the<br />
ingredients of our educational offerings fresh and readily<br />
available. With a full menu of educational resources<br />
and opportunities now available at ORBA/OAPC, now<br />
is the time to fuel up, plug in and power up with the<br />
collaborative knowledge that will help us to achieve<br />
the quality roads we all desire.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 9
CANADA’S BU<br />
RUNWAY UND<br />
FAST TRACK<br />
REHABILITATI<br />
In just seven weeks, Canada’s busiest<br />
runway at Toronto Pearson International<br />
Airport was rehabilitated, despite 15 days<br />
of rain and an ambitious schedule that<br />
incorporated four phases of work into<br />
one construction period.<br />
Echelon paving of the runway surface course<br />
took place in just 10 days. (Pave-Al)
SIEST<br />
ERGOES<br />
ON by<br />
Lisa Fattori<br />
Runway 05-23, along with five taxiways,<br />
required round-the-clock construction to<br />
minimize disruptions to airport operations<br />
and involved 400 workers at the peak of construction.<br />
The $<strong>30</strong> million project began April 28 and wrapped<br />
up May 16, on time and well ahead of the airport’s<br />
busy summer travel season.<br />
Runway 05-23 is one of the airport’s oldest runways,<br />
and was last rehabilitated in 2005. Originally a composite<br />
structure, the runway required removal of the surface<br />
pavement and subsurface course, as well as repairs to<br />
select areas of the concrete. The project took one year<br />
to plan, with consultations between engineering staff<br />
at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) and<br />
airline partners, as well as the airport’s air navigation<br />
provider, NAV CANADA.<br />
The partial closure of the runway, from March 28 to<br />
April 23, and full closure from April 24 to May 16, meant<br />
that aircraft movements would be more restrained from<br />
an airside capacity perspective. This required detailed<br />
scheduling of both ground operations and construction<br />
timelines. Moreover, phases three and four, initially ››<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 11
One of the four MTVs and two of the six pavers<br />
working on the surface course on the south side<br />
of the centreline of Runway 05-23. (Pave-Al)<br />
scheduled for October <strong>2017</strong> and later<br />
in 2018, were included in the spring<br />
phases, which further complicated<br />
logistics planning.<br />
“The approach to the project<br />
schedule initially was very<br />
conservative, as we were uncertain<br />
about the weather,” says Chris<br />
Stewart, Manager, Airside and<br />
Infrastructure Engineering, GTAA.<br />
“We had never started a major<br />
pavement restoration project so<br />
early in the year; typically we don’t<br />
start projects until mid-April. When<br />
combined with a milder than average<br />
spring, the concerted efforts of all<br />
parties paid off to allow us to advance<br />
the schedule for phase three and four<br />
and complete the work on May 16.<br />
This project was very important to<br />
make sure that the busiest runway<br />
in Canada could safely and reliably<br />
operate into the future. Although it<br />
resulted in some unfortunate delays<br />
to our customers and noise impact<br />
to our community, it was good to<br />
12 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS<br />
see that we were able to significantly<br />
mitigate the timespan of those delays<br />
and relieve the noise impact through<br />
our efforts to complete the project<br />
more quickly than originally planned.”<br />
That’s the beauty<br />
of asphalt; you can<br />
pave today and be<br />
open tomorrow.<br />
– Carinci<br />
Efficient workmanship by experienced<br />
heavy civil contractors was also key<br />
in ensuring that the project was<br />
completed on time. The 05-23 runway<br />
and related taxiways were constructed<br />
by Pave-Al Limited and Gazzola Paving<br />
Ltd., who have partnered in the past<br />
with other Toronto Pearson runway<br />
projects. The companies’ combined<br />
manpower, equipment and paving<br />
materials, as well as the expertise<br />
and work ethic of subtrades, provided<br />
the robust workforce that was needed<br />
to tackle such a large and time-sensitive<br />
project.<br />
“Both Pave-Al and Gazzola Paving<br />
each have a plant close to the airport,<br />
with a daily capacity of 4,000 tonnes<br />
of asphalt for each company,” says<br />
Albert Carinci, Contract Manager for<br />
Pave-Al Limited. “Combined, we can<br />
reduce the down time significantly<br />
and can do in two days what would<br />
normally take a week.”<br />
While the rehabilitation project was<br />
designed in-house, the GTAA hired<br />
engineering firm, Englobe, for on-site<br />
quality control of the project and<br />
to test the integrity of the existing<br />
runway. Heavy Weight Deflectometer<br />
(HWD) testing assessed the efficiency<br />
of load transfer in the concrete joints,<br />
and through Ground Penetrating<br />
Radar (GPR), lower density material or<br />
voids were located. After establishing<br />
the location of voids and weak load
transfer areas in the composite<br />
pavement structure, the solution<br />
to the voids was to drill 11,000 holes<br />
to inject grout under pressure below<br />
the concrete. In addition, 6,600 steel<br />
dowel bars were installed to help<br />
transfer the load between the<br />
concrete slabs.<br />
“The slots for the dowel bars<br />
required specialized machinery,<br />
so we contracted Randy Cole of<br />
Cole Concrete Cutting in Wyoming,”<br />
Carinci says. “This company has one<br />
of three machines in the U.S. that can<br />
do this work. It was critical that Cole’s<br />
equipment be used from April 1 to<br />
the 17. Equipment in Canada can<br />
only make <strong>30</strong>0 slots per day, whereas<br />
Cole’s machine made 900 and had<br />
a capacity of 1,200 slots per day.”<br />
Runway 05-23 runs east-west and<br />
is 3,<strong>30</strong>0 metres long by 61 metres<br />
wide. Once the concrete repair work<br />
was complete, 20,000 tonnes of<br />
PGAC 64-28 lower course asphalt<br />
was laid. The surface course asphalt<br />
required 50,000 tonnes of PGAC<br />
70-28 polymer-modified asphalt<br />
cement. Work was staggered for<br />
the rehabilitation of two interacting<br />
runways (15L-33R and 15R-33L), with<br />
three days devoted to each of those<br />
portions of the runway to minimize<br />
disruptions to the runways.<br />
Prior to the application of the surface<br />
course, some areas were padded to<br />
meet the specified longitudinal profile<br />
of the runway. The built-up crown<br />
of the runway has approximately<br />
200 mm of asphalt on top of the<br />
original concrete base, and the<br />
intersecting runways gradually<br />
slope to meet the crown of the<br />
primary 05-23 runway.<br />
“Most of the loads are on the centre<br />
23 metres of the runway, so we didn’t<br />
do a lot of work on the concrete<br />
outside of this area,” says Kevin<br />
Chee, Senior Civil Engineer for GTAA.<br />
“There is 200 mm of asphalt at the<br />
centre of the runway at 1,000 metres<br />
in length on the west end, because<br />
testing showed the greatest number<br />
of voids in this location. There is<br />
hardly any load at the edges of the<br />
runway, so these sections only had<br />
a 65 mm asphalt overlay.”<br />
Excavation work ran day and night,<br />
while concrete pours and asphalt<br />
paving work occurred during the<br />
day. Echelon paving of the runway<br />
surface course took place in just 10<br />
days, with one steady 60 mm thickness<br />
for the surface pavement. Each of six<br />
pavers paved five metre swaths for the<br />
centre <strong>30</strong> metres of the runway. The<br />
base asphalt was carried out by four<br />
paving crews, while the surface asphalt<br />
required six paving crews, four shuttle<br />
buggies, 40 trucks and two asphalt<br />
plants producing a total of 8,000<br />
tonnes of asphalt per day.<br />
“It was important not to have any cold<br />
joints at the wheel path of aircraft, so<br />
the job required echelon paving with<br />
six pavers for the centre <strong>30</strong> metres ››<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 13
To keep Hotel Taxiway’s granular base dry during 15 days of rain, 20,000 m 2 of<br />
tarps were laid and rain water was pumped out as it accumulated. (Pave-Al)<br />
of the runway,” says Terrance Ramkissoon, Project<br />
Manager for GTAA. “With no cold joints, you reduce<br />
future maintenance costs and the job goes much<br />
faster using that many pavers.”<br />
The project’s scope of work included the removal and<br />
refurbishing of 1,200 runway lights by Tristar Electric Inc.<br />
Once the lights were removed, workers cored a <strong>30</strong>0 mm<br />
hole to within an eighth of an inch to the mud plate of<br />
50<br />
stability machines.<br />
Call, write, fax or email your testing equipment requirements.<br />
We can calibrate and repair everything we sell!<br />
14 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS<br />
each light. After milling and replacing the pavement,<br />
the centre of each light was marked, and the lights were<br />
replaced and adjusted to be flush with the new pavement.<br />
Previously, there were only two-inch concrete walls around<br />
each light, but they now have four inch concrete walls for<br />
added strength and durability.<br />
“We also replaced the fiber optic mandatory hold signs<br />
with LED lighting,” says Balraj Parmar, Senior Electrical<br />
Engineer for the GTAA. “These are the areas where the<br />
pilots stop before entering the runway. We replaced 40<br />
signs for the one runway for more efficient and modern<br />
signage.”<br />
Of the five taxiways that were rehabilitated, Hotel Taxiway<br />
is the longest. Running approximately 200 metres south<br />
of the 05-23 runway, the concrete structure is parallel to<br />
the runway and measures 1,<strong>30</strong>0 metres long by 23 metres<br />
wide, the centre 16 metres of which was rehabilitated. The<br />
project called for the complete replacement of the centre<br />
portion of the taxiway, with Coreydale Contracting Co.<br />
working day and night, using five backhoes, to clear the<br />
855 mm deep old concrete and concrete stabilized base<br />
so that the structure could be re-built. Approximately<br />
75 per cent of Hotel Taxiway was made available on<br />
March 28, and on April 24 the balance of the taxiway<br />
became available. The project required a granular base<br />
of 12,000 tonnes of limestone gravel, an application of<br />
cement stabilized base and 18,000 m 3 of concrete.<br />
The biggest challenge to Hotel Taxiway was the 15 days<br />
of rain that fell half way through the project. The granular<br />
base had already been laid and needed to be kept dry to<br />
avoid re-excavating and starting from scratch. The lowtech,<br />
but effective solution, was to lay tarps over the work<br />
area and to pump out rain water as it accumulated. The<br />
tarp solution enabled construction to continue, so that<br />
the taxiway could meet the completion date of May 23.<br />
Although the structure was finished a week prior, the
Milling of the runway prior to overlay. Milling in the keel<br />
area was carried down to the concrete. On the shoulder<br />
areas only 65 mm of milling (as needed for grade and<br />
crossfall) was required. (Pave-Al)<br />
The rehabilitation of the runway and<br />
taxiways is the largest pavement<br />
infrastructure project at Toronto<br />
Pearson in the last 10 years.<br />
extra time was needed to enable the concrete to<br />
cure and gain strength.<br />
“It’s typical, in April, to have wet conditions and we<br />
can lose a lot of workable days,” Carinci says. “We<br />
were aware of the situation and were prepared for bad<br />
weather. After the excavation of the taxiway, we were<br />
essentially left with a bathtub that was 1,<strong>30</strong>0 metres<br />
long, 16 metres wide and 750 mm deep. To prevent the<br />
rain from reaching and saturating the granular material,<br />
we laid 20,000 square metres of tarps. For 20 days,<br />
we used 10 pumps, including vacuum excavating<br />
trucks, to pump water from the top of the tarps.<br />
The sub-grade was protected, which minimized<br />
delays and enabled us to manage through the<br />
rain to maintain the construction schedule.”<br />
It’s been 12 years since runway 05-23 was rehabilitated,<br />
which is what is expected for the life of an asphalt<br />
overlay on such a busy runway. “The original concrete<br />
below, however, is beyond its expected life, ranging in<br />
age from <strong>30</strong> to 50 years old,” Stewart says. “Asphalt on<br />
a new runway is good for approximately 12 years, but<br />
in this case, the old concrete below will lessen the life<br />
of this rehabilitation to an estimated five to six years.<br />
Eventually, we’ll have to remove the concrete, and<br />
construct a completely new runway that will last longer.”<br />
While there were over 1,000 flight cancellations and<br />
delays over the course of seven weeks of construction,<br />
some of the down time can be attributed to the<br />
underutilization of the eastern half of 05-23, with<br />
6000 ft available. This remained open for smaller ››<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 15
REHABILITATION<br />
OF RUNWAY 05-23 AND<br />
ADJACENT TAXIWAYS<br />
COST OF PROJECT<br />
$<strong>30</strong> MILLION<br />
CONSTRUCTION PERIOD<br />
April 28, <strong>2017</strong> to May 16, <strong>2017</strong><br />
DESIGN<br />
Designed in-house by engineering staff at<br />
Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA).<br />
SIZE OF PROJECT<br />
310,000 m 2 (3,<strong>30</strong>0 m x 61 m for runway 05-23<br />
and 108,700 m 2 for 5 taxiways).<br />
CONSTRUCTION TEAM<br />
Pave-Al Limited and Gazzola Paving Ltd.<br />
SUB-CONTRACTORS<br />
Cole Concrete Cutting, Belmont Concrete<br />
Finishing Co. Ltd., Tristar Electric Inc., Coreydale<br />
Contracting Co., Roadmaster Road Construction<br />
& Sealing Ltd., Airlines Pavement Marking Inc.,<br />
Vector Corrosion Technologies.<br />
RUNWAY 05-23<br />
CONCRETE REPAIR<br />
· 11,000 holes injected with grout to fill voids.<br />
· 6,600 dowel bars installed to help transfer<br />
the load between concrete slabs.<br />
LOWER COURSE ASPHALT<br />
20,000 tonnes of PGAC 64-28.<br />
SURFACE COURSE ASPHALT<br />
50,000 tonnes of PGAC 70-28 polymer<br />
modified asphalt cement.<br />
HOTEL TAXIWAY<br />
AREA<br />
29,000 m 2 (1,800 m x 16 m)<br />
GRANULAR BASE<br />
12,000 tonnes<br />
CONCRETE STABILIZED BASE<br />
CONCRETE<br />
18,000 m 3<br />
16 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS<br />
aircraft for the first four weeks of the<br />
project. Unfortunately, many aircraft<br />
that were projected and able to take<br />
the shortened 05-23 did not, as the<br />
pilots in command made decisions<br />
to use longer runways to minimize<br />
aircraft risk. With the shortened<br />
05-23 being underutilized, air traffic<br />
control found that operating on the<br />
north-south runways 15L-33R and<br />
15R-33L, in lieu of using 06R-24L,<br />
06L-24R and the shortened 05-23,<br />
provided a higher capacity. This was<br />
a preferred configuration, but it had<br />
the unfortunate effect of increasing<br />
noise impact to the north and south<br />
of the airport.<br />
Despite these inconveniences<br />
to airport passengers and noise<br />
impacts to those communities,<br />
construction work was carefully<br />
timed to fall between the busy<br />
periods of March break and<br />
summer to mitigate impact. Also,<br />
the consolidation of two additional<br />
phases into the earlier phases meant<br />
that there would be no further<br />
closures and delays for travelers.<br />
Runway 05-23 has the capacity for<br />
200,000 take-offs and landings per<br />
year, and accommodates more than<br />
one third of the hourly flights at the<br />
airport’s three busiest runways. The<br />
rehabilitation of the runway and<br />
taxiways is the largest pavement<br />
infrastructure project at Toronto<br />
Pearson in the last 10 years, and the<br />
upgrades are all the more impressive<br />
given the strict seven week timeline.<br />
“The airport is always busy, so I have<br />
to commend the staff of the airport<br />
for all of the research and planning<br />
it took to look at the logistics and<br />
arrange schedules to minimize<br />
disruptions,” Carinci says. “A project<br />
goes very smoothly when you have<br />
a good team and that includes all of<br />
the subtrades who did a tremendous<br />
job. The runway was completed<br />
May 16, with the first flight landing<br />
at 6:00 pm that evening. That’s the<br />
beauty of asphalt; you can pave<br />
today and be open tomorrow.”<br />
Lisa Fattori is a freelance writer,<br />
specializing in the construction<br />
industry.
The first plane lands on new Runway 05-23. (Tom Podolec)<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 17
Partners in Quality<br />
symposium hits the mark for<br />
municipalities<br />
by Lara Henry<br />
It’s no secret that a significant factor in building quality roads<br />
is building a solid relationship between road owners and industry.<br />
OHMPA (now OAPC) knew that twenty years ago when it launched<br />
its first Partners in Quality symposium.<br />
18 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
The idea behind the<br />
symposium was to create<br />
a forum where members<br />
could meet owners and<br />
specifiers, get the latest<br />
information, and address any issues.<br />
It soon became clear that one<br />
location couldn’t fill the need for<br />
this kind of dialogue, and the<br />
provincial road tour was born.<br />
In 2010, OGRA joined OHMPA<br />
(now OAPC) and MTO in the Partners<br />
in Quality (PIQ) symposium. Today<br />
the program presents a unique<br />
opportunity for industry members,<br />
MTO, municipal and consulting<br />
engineers to meet face-to-face,<br />
bringing some of the best minds<br />
in the industry together to learn<br />
from each other.<br />
From the outset, a key stakeholder<br />
group for PIQ has been municipalities.<br />
In fact, in 2009, initial work was<br />
started on the establishment of<br />
the OHMPA/OGRA Municipal<br />
Liaison Committee as direct a<br />
result of feedback from members<br />
and municipal owners during PIQ.<br />
This came out of a request by all<br />
stakeholders for a more robust<br />
and productive relationship to<br />
improve specifications and provide<br />
consistently high quality products.<br />
“Talking to municipalities and making<br />
sure they are involved is an essential<br />
element of the Partners in Quality<br />
symposium,” says Vince Aurilio,<br />
Executive Director, OAPC. “We try<br />
to bring information to PIQ that is<br />
relevant and important to both our<br />
members and to municipalities.<br />
This year, for example, I presented<br />
on asphalt quality and the results<br />
of the latest ORBA member<br />
survey. The presentation on asset<br />
management and how it relates to<br />
road improvement was also extremely<br />
useful to show our members how<br />
municipalities select roads for work.”<br />
David Shelsted, Director of Roads<br />
and Transportation Services, City<br />
of Greater Sudbury, is a long time<br />
PIQ attendee and attended this<br />
year along with a number of his city<br />
colleagues. “The benefit to attending<br />
PIQ for a municipality is to find out<br />
what is current in the industry, the<br />
changes that are happening, and<br />
hearing about the issues as they<br />
are occurring. The presentations<br />
are really good for getting updates<br />
on information that are relevant to<br />
municipalities,” he says.<br />
Another consistent component of PIQ<br />
directly relevant to municipalities is<br />
the regional forecasts from MTO and<br />
other government updates. “At the<br />
most recent PIQ, it was very beneficial<br />
to municipal staff to hear MTO talk<br />
about the audit. Their presentation<br />
provided insight into where we can<br />
look at our own municipalities and<br />
see where possible improvements<br />
can be done,” says Robert Burlie,<br />
Manager of Road Operations,<br />
Etobicoke/York District, City of<br />
Toronto and 2016 president of OGRA.<br />
“It was also helpful to hear from MTO<br />
on the new specifications. We look to<br />
MTO for their insight into emerging<br />
issues and so it’s helpful to see where<br />
they are heading,” he adds.<br />
Adds Shelsted, Greater Sudbury:<br />
“There is a strong MTO presence,<br />
and they present their current work<br />
programs and specification changes,<br />
so if you attend you get first hand<br />
information and updates from them.”<br />
Hearing directly from MTO can<br />
also help municipalities with their<br />
planning. “Municipalities can find<br />
out from MTO what they are doing<br />
in the regions and how it may directly<br />
impact local municipalities,” says<br />
Chris Bradley, Director of Public<br />
Works, Peterborough County. “For<br />
example, in my region there are only<br />
three paving companies. With a small<br />
number of suppliers, a big MTO job<br />
can directly impact the timelines of<br />
any municipal jobs and how we might<br />
schedule them.”<br />
Bradley made two presentations at<br />
the PIQ stop in Ottawa, one on the<br />
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SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 19
The <strong>2017</strong> OAPC Partners in Quality Road Tour Seminars took place<br />
April 18 to April 27 in Sudbury, Ottawa, Kitchener and Vaughan.<br />
The following presentations were made and are available on<br />
OAPC’s website under Publications & Education:<br />
· About OAPC (Mike McLean)<br />
· MTO AG Team (Garfield Dales & Paul LeCoarer)<br />
· MTO <strong>2017</strong> Bituminous Report (Anne Holt)<br />
· MTO <strong>2017</strong> Regional Forecast - Northeastern Region<br />
· MTO <strong>2017</strong> Regional Forecast - Eastern Region<br />
· MTO <strong>2017</strong> Regional Forecast - Western Region and Capital<br />
Program<br />
· MTO <strong>2017</strong> Regional Forecast - Central Region<br />
· CCIL News (Nabil Kamel)<br />
· Sudbury & Northern Municipal Forecast (Alan Korell)<br />
· Ottawa & Eastern Municipal Forecast (Chris Bradley)<br />
· Kitchener & Western Municipal Forecast (Mark Eby)<br />
· GTA & Central Municipal Forecast (David Atkins)<br />
· OAPC Marketing & Communications Initiatives (Abigail Wright<br />
Pereira)<br />
· Stakeholders Quality Forum (Vince Aurilio)<br />
· Using Asset Management Programming to Make Roadway<br />
Improvements (Alan Korell, Chris Bradley & James Smith)<br />
· Warm Mix Asphalt (Melinda Furse)<br />
· All You Need to Know About Tack Coating (Mike McLean)<br />
forecast and the second on asset management.<br />
As a member of the OAPC/OGRA Municipal Hot Mix<br />
Liaison Committee, he believes it’s important to work<br />
with industry partners. “PIQ is a good opportunity to<br />
get the word out that industry is working both with<br />
municipalities and on making the relationship with<br />
key stakeholders a positive one,” says Bradley.<br />
Another important aspect of PIQ is the technical<br />
presentations, which this year included warm mix<br />
asphalt and tack coating. “The technical presentations<br />
are enormously useful. I found the presentation on warm<br />
mix asphalt particularly interesting as this is something<br />
we are interested in learning more about,” says Burlie,<br />
City of Toronto.<br />
Bradley, Peterborough County, agrees. “It’s incredibly<br />
important for municipalities to come out and hear the<br />
high quality technical presentations on issues that are<br />
related to what they do in their business every day.<br />
Municipalities are exposed to emerging technologies<br />
as well as technologies that will directly impact the<br />
quality of a job. For example, this year’s presentation<br />
on tack coating and last year’s on longitudinal joints<br />
illustrate relatively simple things that can be done<br />
that are so important to the quality of the job.”<br />
While PIQ provides an opportunity for everyone to find<br />
out first hand what’s going on in the industry, what the<br />
current issues are and how they relate to municipalities,<br />
it’s also an important opportunity for industry to hear from<br />
the municipalities. Chris Bradley, Alan Korell and James<br />
Smith’s presentation on asset management programming<br />
to make road improvements explained how municipalities<br />
prioritize what work they need to do. This is an important<br />
forum where everyone can learn from each other.<br />
The seminar also provides a valuable opportunity to<br />
network with industry, MTO and other municipalities.<br />
Shelsted, Greater Sudbury, believes this is one of the<br />
key reasons to attend. “The interaction with attendees<br />
is one of the main benefits of PIQ. We encourage other<br />
municipalities to attend to further expand this networking<br />
opportunity and information sharing.”<br />
Especially with today’s challenges, it’s more important<br />
than ever to have more dialogue with each other and<br />
work closer together. The seminars are a valuable forum<br />
to get all the partners together, to learn together and<br />
understand what’s important to each other. “The value<br />
of the PIQ symposium is that together we can discuss<br />
problems and opportunities with all the partners in our<br />
industry. If all the stakeholders can get together and<br />
have discussions about concerns before they become<br />
problems, then we can all do our jobs more effectively<br />
and smoothly,” says Aurilio.<br />
20 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS<br />
Lara Henry is a communication specialist and editor<br />
of ASPHALTopics.
Bap Update<br />
by donn bernal<br />
Update on the<br />
BaP report module<br />
As an owner of an asphalt plant, you are already well aware that OAPC has been working<br />
diligently with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) to develop a<br />
Technical Standard as it relates to benzo(α)pyrene (BaP) emissions.<br />
Through this process, the MOECC has learned a lot<br />
about our industry and the asphalt plant production<br />
process. We, in turn, have a better understanding of the<br />
direction that MOECC is taking as it relates to climate<br />
change. Ontario wants to be a world leader in controlling<br />
emissions, and BaP from asphalt plants is considered the<br />
surrogate for all polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).<br />
Although our plants produce hot mix asphalt using one<br />
of two main methods, drum or batch, each plant is unique<br />
in design and configuration, which it makes it difficult to<br />
have a “one size fits all” Technical Standard. We are very<br />
close to finalizing standards with the MOECC that are<br />
considered fair for all stakeholders.<br />
A final piece to this standard is a requirement to track<br />
temperatures at certain intervals and report, as necessary,<br />
these temperatures to the local MOECC district offices.<br />
It was thought that this tracking might be quite<br />
cumbersome especially to the asphalt plant operator.<br />
Therefore, the BaP Subcommittee decided to provide a<br />
module to automate this reporting process and remove<br />
that responsibility from the asphalt plant operator.<br />
In conjunction with a local asphalt plant software<br />
developer and OAPC member, Aggressor Automation,<br />
the subcommittee developed a standardized reporting<br />
module that can be bolted onto any asphalt plant<br />
and record temperatures and production tonnages at<br />
specified intervals. These temperatures include those<br />
at the bottom of the drag conveyor and those at the<br />
asphalt cement tanks. The module then averages out<br />
the temperatures for the day as well as having a rolling<br />
average for the whole year. With this information, the<br />
asphalt plant operator simply has to print a report in<br />
the event of a visit from a district officer or at the request<br />
from the local MOECC District Office.<br />
We are currently at the trial stage, fine-tuning the<br />
reporting module on a couple of plants that are under<br />
the Technical Standards with more plants scheduled<br />
to participate.<br />
The intent is to make this module available to all OAPC<br />
asphalt plant producers whether they are under the<br />
Technical Standard or not. It is an excellent way to monitor<br />
your facility for various production efficiencies, including<br />
natural gas consumption. The cost of installing the<br />
reporting module will vary depending on the asphalt<br />
plant and its current configuration. In the future, your<br />
asphalt plant manufacturer could also have this reporting<br />
module available.<br />
Providing transparency to the MOECC will help strengthen<br />
our relationship with them. This reporting module will go<br />
a long way to achieving that goal as well as simplifying the<br />
process for all stakeholders.<br />
Donn Bernal is General Manager at Yellowline Asphalt<br />
Products Ltd.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 21
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y Steve Pecar<br />
The Ontario Asphalt Pavement<br />
Council (OAPC) recognized<br />
outstanding service to the<br />
association and industry at its<br />
43 rd annual general meeting and<br />
awards luncheon at the Fairmont<br />
Royal York Hotel in Toronto on<br />
March <strong>30</strong>.<br />
“The association, its members and<br />
the industry have greatly benefited<br />
from the contributions of these<br />
individuals,” says OAPC Executive<br />
Director Vince Aurilio. “OAPC’s<br />
awards program recognizes and<br />
celebrates individuals who make<br />
a positive difference in the asphalt<br />
industry, one road at a time.”<br />
Joe Bunting<br />
MENTORSHIP AWARD<br />
Mike McLean and Bert Hendriks<br />
Bruce Armstrong and Marianne O’Shaughnessy<br />
Bert Hendriks has gathered a lot of knowledge<br />
during his 42 years in this industry, knowledge<br />
that will not be lost to those who follow in his<br />
footsteps.<br />
Hendriks believes it’s incumbent on those with<br />
experience to share and teach newcomers, and<br />
his dedication to this task has earned him the<br />
2016 Joe Bunting Mentorship Award. The award<br />
was established to recognize the importance of<br />
mentorship to our community and honour those<br />
people in our industry who take the time to<br />
teach, inspire and encourage tomorrow’s leaders.<br />
The Executive Vice President of the Municipal<br />
Division at R.W. Tomlinson Limited, Hendriks<br />
King<br />
Beamish<br />
EXCELLENCE AWARD<br />
Marianne O’Shaughnessy has done a lot of<br />
things in her 31 year career with IKO Industries<br />
Ltd. in Hamilton.<br />
Starting off as an asphalt tester, her duties<br />
expanded to include marketing stone to hot<br />
Steve Pecar is a Mississauga-based<br />
writer, editor and designer.<br />
Donn Bernal and Steve Manolis<br />
Earl Kee<br />
<strong>VOL</strong>UNTEER<br />
OF THE YEAR<br />
AWARD<br />
The Earl Kee Volunteer of the Year Award appears<br />
to have been tailor made for Steve Manolis.<br />
The award recognizes an OHMPA (now OAPC)<br />
member who has made an exemplary voluntary<br />
24 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
was selected because of his ongoing passion, dedication and commitment<br />
to the advancement of the hot mix asphalt industry and the positive effect<br />
of his mentorship.<br />
Mike McLean of McAsphalt Industries Limited met Hendriks in 2002: “Coming<br />
from a small family-owned paving company, I was inspired by the time Bert took<br />
to teach me the ways of big paving business. He encouraged and mentored me<br />
both personally, and professionally, and I credit him for playing an instrumental<br />
and tremendously positive role in my career.”<br />
Hendriks cares about this industry, and his passion becomes clear when he<br />
talks about his career. “I believe in excellence, I believe in integrity, I believe<br />
in innovation and I believe in commitment,” he says. “That’s what I wanted<br />
to bring to the job.”<br />
These traits are what he encourages younger workers to embrace. He also<br />
understands the value of knowledge gained through experience, and sharing<br />
that knowledge can help build on the ideas that newcomers bring to the industry.<br />
“There are a lot of bright young people out there, but they don’t have the<br />
experience,” Hendriks says. “The other day I was talking to a colleague who<br />
said how important mentorship is because otherwise, ‘everything is just locked<br />
into your own head and when you leave, all the things you know will be lost.’”<br />
Hendriks also marvels at all of the changes that have happened during his<br />
career, but believes it is the natural evolutionary course of things.<br />
“Is this the only industry that’s changing?” he asks rhetorically. “Everything is<br />
changing. It wasn’t that long ago when there were no cell phones or computers.<br />
All industries are evolving and adapting.”<br />
As he contemplates retirement, Hendriks says it won’t curb his desire to pass<br />
along his knowledge and believes that will be his legacy, as one of teacher and<br />
mentor. He says he will continue be “a doer”, and hopes to share that mentality.<br />
“You can retire and not train and mentor, but consistency matters,” he says.<br />
“Yes, the industry is evolving and changing, but it only works if you build on<br />
experience and what went before.”<br />
mix producers, and purchasing paper and cardboard for the company’s felt<br />
mill before she was put in charge of purchasing and managing IKO’s fleet<br />
of vehicles. Today she is the Asphalt Terminal Manager for the company<br />
that supplies manufactured sand to the paving industry.<br />
While she is dedicated to her job, she has always felt the need to contribute<br />
beyond her regular duties. “We’ve been members of OHMPA since 1992,” she<br />
says. “While I don’t contribute much on the technical side anymore, I thought<br />
I could help the association by doing other things.”<br />
Those “other things” have been the hours of volunteer time she has contributed<br />
over the years at industry events and through OHMPA’s Marketing Committee.<br />
Because of her efforts, O’Shaughnessy is the recipient of the 2016 King<br />
Beamish Excellence Award in recognition of her exemplary voluntary<br />
contribution to the works of the association over a long period of time. The<br />
winner also demonstrates qualities that exemplify leadership, motivation and<br />
inspiration related to participation in the association.<br />
In presenting her the award, Bruce Armstrong of Canadian Asphalt Industries<br />
says O’Shaugnessy is always ready to help. “Marianne is always quick to<br />
volunteer at the Marketing Committee,” he said. “She has consistently<br />
helped out at many trade shows and the golf tournament. She has even<br />
gone the extra mile by recruiting a friend to come help out at the tournament<br />
when we needed people.”<br />
O’Shaughnessy says she feels great to be honoured within her industry and<br />
didn’t expect to receive the award. “I’ve been in the industry a number of years<br />
and seen a lot of changes,” she says. “But I have always felt accepted and have<br />
been impressed with the way everyone helps out. I just wanted to do my part.”<br />
contribution to the works of the association in the past year and has<br />
made a significant contribution to the development or progress of the<br />
association’s objectives.<br />
The General Manager of Coco Asphalt Engineering received the award for<br />
his work as chair of the Environment Committee and his role in establishing<br />
a Benzo(a)Pyrene technical standard with the Ontario Ministry of Environment<br />
and Climate Change. His contributions also played a key part in the 2015<br />
publishing of the fifth edition of the OAPC’s Environmental Practices Guide,<br />
and the publishing of several Quality of Asphalt Pavement Task Force bulletins,<br />
including a white paper on Asphalt Cement Quality and Specifications.<br />
“Early on in my career I was taught that it was important to get involved, to<br />
know the industry,” Manolis says. “People told me I would get more than what<br />
I put in. Now, as I am in the midst of my career, I can confirm that it is true.”<br />
Donn Bernal of Yellowline Asphalt Products Ltd. says the passion Manolis has for<br />
asphalt and the asphalt cement industry in general is something to look up to.<br />
“Steve Manolis joined the Board in 2016, and much of the thought of bringing<br />
him onto the Board were the contributions he had made to various committees<br />
and subcommittees prior to that,” says Bernal who presented the award. “He<br />
was the go-to person as we went through OPSS revisions for Performance<br />
Graded Asphalt Cement (PGAC) and he was our representative on the OPSS<br />
committees to finalize the revisions.<br />
Manolis says he was surprised, yet honoured, to receive the award, and looks<br />
forward to continuing the important work with the environmental and technical<br />
committees that he sits on with OAPC.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 25
Roads Scholars and<br />
Scholarship Program<br />
shifts into third gear<br />
in the race to recruit<br />
skilled workers by Abigail Wright Pereira<br />
According to BuildForce Canada, the average<br />
age of a Canadian construction worker is 41;<br />
over the next decade nearly 90,000 of Ontario’s<br />
construction workers are expected to retire. Within that<br />
time, Ontario will need to attract over 110,000 new skilled<br />
construction workers to replace the retiring workforce and<br />
to contend with the increased labour demand.<br />
In 2012, then Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association<br />
(OHMPA) president Murray Ritchie appealed to the<br />
Board of Directors and the Plant and Paving Committee<br />
to work together to develop a program to help bridge<br />
the impending skilled labour gap.<br />
“I recognized that we needed more boots on the ground<br />
to get the job done and those people needed to be<br />
highly skilled. The combination of an aging work force<br />
and growing demand for specialized skills has some<br />
serious implications for the road building industry in<br />
Ontario,” says Mr. Ritchie, Manager of Estimating, Sales<br />
and Marketing for the Miller Group, Georgian Bay Region.<br />
“Over the past five years the problem has become wider<br />
26 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
<strong>2017</strong> Roads Scholars attend the April 6<br />
Spring Operations Seminar held at the<br />
International Centre in Mississauga.<br />
in scope than anticipated. It really comes down to a<br />
skills shortage and that is where industry partnership<br />
with the colleges becomes a crucial component to<br />
resolving this issue.”<br />
The Board and Plant and Paving Committee recognized<br />
that the balance between Ontario’s skilled labour supply<br />
and demand within the construction industry was off-kilter<br />
and the labour shortage could potentially leave Ontario’s<br />
road building industry stuck in a ditch. OHMPA (now<br />
OAPC) initially partnered with Centennial, Conestoga,<br />
Georgian and Fleming Colleges to better engage and<br />
educate young people about the industry as they were<br />
making career choices.<br />
Thus began the Roads Scholars Program which in 2013,<br />
its inaugural year, brought six students to the annual Spring<br />
Operations Seminar to learn about the latest innovations<br />
in asphalt paving and to network with industry leaders and<br />
potential employers.<br />
“Our initial efforts in partnering with the colleges were<br />
quite successful,” says Plant and Paving Committee Chair<br />
and Vice President of FLO Components Mike Deckert. “In<br />
2012, we held our Spring Operations Seminar at Georgian<br />
College and had more paving equipment there than at<br />
the National Heavy Equipment Show. Building off of this<br />
momentum, we developed the program.”<br />
As a part of a long-term strategy to expand its investment<br />
in attracting skilled workers to the industry, OHMPA<br />
introduced the Roads Scholarship Program in 2014.<br />
From its bursary, OHMPA offered each partner college<br />
two yearly $1,000 scholarships to be awarded to two<br />
students within respective heavy equipment operator/<br />
technician and civil engineering programs.<br />
Selection of the scholarship recipients is based on<br />
academic achievement, leadership, and technical skills.<br />
Special consideration is given to students who express<br />
a keen interest in the road building and asphalt industry.<br />
This year the program expanded to Canadore College’s<br />
millwright program and Algonquin College’s welding and<br />
fabrication techniques program to reach those trades that<br />
are in demand within the operations of an asphalt plant.<br />
Now entering its fifth year, the Roads Scholars and Scholarship<br />
Program has brought 32 students to OAPC’s annual<br />
Spring Operations Seminar and has awarded 26 students<br />
$1,000 scholarships, totaling $26,000. Based on an estimate<br />
from a LinkedIn search and reaching out to OAPC members,<br />
approximately <strong>30</strong> per cent of the Roads Scholars students<br />
are employed by an ORBA/OAPC member company.<br />
This is a good start. Nevertheless, according to Mr. Ritchie,<br />
it is a pinhole of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.<br />
“These days the average age of a crew is in their late 40s to<br />
early 50s, and crews are smaller which impacts productivity.<br />
A lot of people considering coming into the industry don’t ››<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 27
In 2015, Conestoga College purchased<br />
an asphalt paver to incorporate into<br />
its HEO program.<br />
want to work the long hours and they look somewhere else.<br />
Marketing the industry and training people is an investment<br />
and maintaining them is critical. As an industry, we need to<br />
focus on mentorship and fostering loyalty, and that is done<br />
through providing a safe work environment, competitive<br />
wages and benefits and job security.”<br />
Jeremy Andrews, 2014 Roads Scholarship recipient<br />
and Contestoga College graduate, agrees that industry<br />
mentorship will go a long way in recruiting and maintaining<br />
a skilled and loyal workforce. Upon graduating from<br />
Conestoga’s Heavy Equipment Operator Program,<br />
Mr. Andrews joined Capital Paving in Guelph and is<br />
a heavy equipment operator.<br />
“Young people who are considering joining the industry<br />
are facing a challenging situation,” says Mr. Andrews.<br />
“They can either join an apprenticeship program, which<br />
is quite expensive, or just show up on a job site and do<br />
manual labour for the next five years until they are actually<br />
put on a piece of equipment. So, if you don’t have the<br />
money to do the apprenticeship program, you can get<br />
discouraged pretty fast.<br />
“Even if you have gone through a program, it can still be<br />
challenging to get to do the work that you went to school<br />
for. More mentorship programs would be helpful for those<br />
who come on as manual labour on a crew and for those who<br />
come through a program so that they can gain hands-on<br />
experience and know that they will be able to do the work<br />
they want to do.”<br />
In addition to industry investing in mentorship programs, Reg<br />
Legere, Conestoga Professor of Trades and Apprenticeship<br />
for the Heavy Equipment Operator Program, says that it is<br />
important to educate students on what they can expect in<br />
the real world once they get into the job market. “Those<br />
students who are just coming into the industry have to<br />
understand that starting out, they are going to have to pay<br />
their dues and may have to start out on the rake; really this<br />
helps to foster respect and an understanding of the entire<br />
paving process. At the same time, on-the-job mentors will<br />
greatly help to get “green” workers polished and ready to<br />
take on more responsibility,” explains Mr. Legere.<br />
Conestoga College is one of the few colleges that has<br />
a paver on site at its Guelph campus facility, and has<br />
incorporated asphalt paving into its curriculum, thanks in<br />
part to its partnership with the OAPC. “With the Roads<br />
Scholars and Scholarship Program and having OAPC come<br />
out to present to students and have that one-on-one contact,<br />
the school sees that the industry is an invested partner, and<br />
that is how we were able to bring in the paver in 2015 and<br />
include asphalt paving into the program,” says Mr. Legere.<br />
The symbiotic partnership between the colleges and<br />
industry not only helps to recruit skilled workers into the<br />
industry, but also benefits industry from a quality standpoint,<br />
according to OAPC Executive Director, Vince Aurilio.<br />
We need to focus on mentorship and<br />
fostering loyalty through providing a<br />
safe work environment, competitive<br />
wages and benefits and job security.<br />
- Ritchie<br />
“Teaching best practices in asphalt paving in the schools is<br />
a grass roots effort that benefits everyone,” says Mr. Aurilio.<br />
“As we pass this knowledge on to the upcoming workforce,<br />
they will be better equipped to help raise the bar in building<br />
quality asphalt pavements.”<br />
Better marketing of the industry, investment in mentoring<br />
programs and industry/academic collaboration is a partial<br />
key to resolving the skilled labour shortage. However, that<br />
shortage is also due to Canada’s population demographics.<br />
According to Statistics Canada, the nation’s population<br />
growth by birth rate began to decline in the late 1960s<br />
and by 1976, the fertility rate had fallen to fewer than<br />
1.8 children per woman and remains consistent today.<br />
Since 1999, population growth has consistently been<br />
driven by immigration. Approximately two-thirds of current<br />
population growth is the result of migratory increase, while<br />
natural increase accounts for the remaining one-third.<br />
“Because of our demographics, there are simply fewer<br />
people graduating from high school,” says Stephen Speers,<br />
Conestoga Chair of School of Trades and Apprenticeship.<br />
28 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
“We need to look to immigration and offer training<br />
programs to immigrants to attract the right people to help<br />
offset the skilled worker shortage all trades are facing.”<br />
Over the past 20 years, Mr. Speers has not only observed<br />
a shift in demographics, but he says with exponential<br />
changes within technology, academia and industry need<br />
to collaborate to develop specializations within the trades.<br />
This will prepare students for the technology that exists<br />
today and will help them to anticipate what they will face<br />
five and 10 years down the road.<br />
“The partnership we currently have needs to extend to a<br />
knowledge transfer on the latest and upcoming technologies<br />
to train students in specializations to support industry and<br />
to also offer life-long learning,” says Mr. Speers. “There is<br />
also a significant need for government-funded support of<br />
education programs, because the scope of the skilled labour<br />
need is becoming much broader.”<br />
Innate to the road building industry is the ability to navigate<br />
through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In the late<br />
18th and early 19th century, road builders forged through<br />
rugged terrain and dense forests to build Ontario’s first<br />
roads with inadequate labour. To recruit the manpower<br />
required to build and maintain these roads, a “statutory<br />
labour” system was established, requiring settlers to work<br />
up to 12 days each year on road building and maintenance<br />
adjacent to their property. 1<br />
Thankfully, we are long past the days of instating<br />
conscription to accommodate the current infrastructure<br />
surge. As a result of the foresight of the OHMPA Board<br />
and Plant and Paving Committee, the Roads Scholars and<br />
Scholarship Program that was developed five years ago<br />
is making a difference, one student at a time, and is<br />
continuing to expand its reach throughout Ontario.<br />
“The Roads Scholars Program and the paving instruction<br />
at Conestoga introduced me to asphalt paving,” says<br />
Mr. Andrews. Mr. Andrews grew up on a farm and initially<br />
planned to go into residential construction. “Now I have a<br />
career in which I can get up every day and actually change<br />
the landscape of Ontario’s infrastructure. At the end of<br />
the day, I can see the results of my work and can say that<br />
I helped to build that road or bridge. That is something<br />
I take great pride in.”<br />
The fruits of OAPC’s Road Scholars and Scholarship Program<br />
are just beginning to ripen. Through the work of the program<br />
and continued dedication of OAPC, industry and its partners,<br />
in due time we can hope to reap the harvest of a bountiful<br />
crop of highly skilled workers who are dedicated to the<br />
asphalt industry.<br />
1. Gilchrist, C.W. (2015, April 3) Historica Canada. Roads and Highways. Retrieved from: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/roads-and-highways/<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 29
Paving the way with frien<br />
The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA)<br />
with Amy Miller, National Director<br />
Can you give us a brief history on the<br />
origin of your organization?<br />
The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) was<br />
started in 2000 by the National Asphalt<br />
Pavement Association (NAPA), the Asphalt<br />
Institute (AI) and the State Asphalt Pavement<br />
Associations (SAPA). Initially, the Alliance<br />
was a volunteer organization, but as it grew<br />
it was staffed with full-time employees. The<br />
goal of the Alliance was to have an organized<br />
means to combine resources and focus on<br />
initiatives that are common to the three<br />
major asphalt associations.<br />
Can you report on changes to your<br />
organization and how they are working?<br />
A primary focus of the APA is to deploy<br />
research material developed by the Pavement<br />
Economics Committee (PEC), which is<br />
supported by NAPA and SAPA, as well as<br />
marketing material developed by the Go To<br />
Market committee, which is solely supported<br />
by NAPA. Technical reports are transferred<br />
to the Go To Market, and the committee<br />
finesses the material so that it can be<br />
used by industry. The deployment work of<br />
APA is very important to ensure that this<br />
information gets out to the audience to<br />
which it was intended. The APA deploys<br />
this material both nationally and regionally.<br />
The regional approach is the newest<br />
change to the APA. We hired a regional<br />
director, Dan Stabell, who is responsible<br />
for the northcentral region. In July 2016, he<br />
conducted the first major regional meeting in<br />
the Northcentral region. The APA deployment<br />
team has also held meetings in the Northeast<br />
and Southeast regions. These meetings have<br />
been instrumental in discussing efforts<br />
related to regional issues and developing<br />
initiatives that allow focused deployment of<br />
strategic information. Eventually, we plan to<br />
have regional directors for all five regions –<br />
Northeast, Southeast, Northcentral, Rocky<br />
Mountains and Western.<br />
Each region has a council that is made up<br />
of state asphalt executives, NAPA staff and<br />
membership, and Asphalt Institute staff<br />
and membership. The goal of this council<br />
is to establish needed directives that will<br />
incorporate current PEC deliverables as well<br />
as establish regional directives handled by<br />
the council. An annual review of our work<br />
in these regions will ensure that we are<br />
deploying the needed information, that<br />
we’re staying on target and that our<br />
initiatives are being completed.<br />
What are you currently working on?<br />
We have an overseeing committee that<br />
puts a stamp of approval on the initiatives<br />
of the deployment of the APA. Right now,<br />
we are focused on deploying materials<br />
that are related to Life Cycle Cost Analysis<br />
(LCCA). Also, we are reminding operators<br />
not to overlook the opportunities that exist<br />
with the commercial market. This would<br />
include anything that is not a Department<br />
of Transportation project, such as parking<br />
lots. Traditionally, the asphalt industry has<br />
not focused on the commercial market. The<br />
competition, however, is making inroads here,<br />
so as an industry we are stepping up efforts.<br />
We’re also pushing for the implementation of<br />
PaveExpress, which is a free online software<br />
to design rigid and flexible pavements (www.<br />
pavexpressdesign.com). This is a deliverable<br />
of the PEC that has been very successful.<br />
This web-based software tool continues to<br />
draw attention from designers and engineers<br />
around the world. Enhancements continue to<br />
be added to the software, which improves the<br />
efficiency and accuracy of pavement design<br />
for more robust pavements.<br />
The APA is also responsible for the National<br />
Perpetual Pavement Award. The Alliance first<br />
defined perpetual pavements in 2000 and<br />
established the Perpetual Pavement Award<br />
in 2001. Since then, 118 pavements in <strong>30</strong><br />
U.S. states and one Canadian province have<br />
been honoured with the award. Recipients<br />
are state transportation departments and<br />
local agency road owners who have wellperforming<br />
asphalt pavements that are<br />
at least 35 years old. Winners of the 2016<br />
Perpetual Pavement Award included 10<br />
departments of transportation.<br />
APA continues to represent the asphalt<br />
industry at various trade shows, including<br />
events put on by the International Council of<br />
Shopping Centres (ICSC) and large national<br />
trade shows. Participation in these forums<br />
increases awareness about APA and the<br />
issues that are current and relevant to the<br />
asphalt industry.
ds across borders<br />
by Lisa Fattori<br />
With various asphalt-related organizations around the world, a wealth of information is<br />
at hand that can benefit individual contractors and companies in the industry. Sharing<br />
new best practices, innovations in technology, better safety standards and new practices<br />
and procedures raises the bar at both the local and national level. By learning from one<br />
another, the asphalt industry can continue to be a leader in providing stakeholders with<br />
value and quality, and to be the preferred choice for construction projects.<br />
Asphaltopics reached out to two professionals who are spearheading exciting initiatives<br />
within their organizations – Siobhan McKelvey, President of Eurobitume and Amy Miller,<br />
National Director of the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA), who offer insight into the<br />
progressive work and goals of their respective associations.<br />
What’s a hot topic for your<br />
organization?<br />
Right now, LCCA is a very hot topic.<br />
The competition is driving the use<br />
of LCCA at local, state and federal<br />
levels, and the asphalt industry<br />
needs to be more active in informing<br />
agencies about all of the factors that<br />
go into the calculation of an accurate<br />
analysis. We are not opposed to LCCA<br />
usage in pavement type selection,<br />
because there is long-term value with<br />
the use of asphalt that can be shown<br />
with proper life cycle cost analysis.<br />
However, we have seen cases where<br />
decision makers were required to use<br />
LCCA, and were uninformed. We feel<br />
it is important to relay the facts and<br />
accurate data to decision makers.<br />
Inputs, such as the initial cost of<br />
a pavement, time to repair, user<br />
delay costs and others must all<br />
be considered. This can be a lot of<br />
information for someone to absorb.<br />
The proper inputs have to go into the<br />
LCCA to make a pavement decision,<br />
and we feel that part of our job should<br />
be to present factual information.<br />
At the end of life of a perpetual<br />
pavement, for example, there is<br />
structural integrity left; there is<br />
some inherent value there which is<br />
not typically identified in the LCCA<br />
process. International Roughness<br />
Index values also don’t come into play<br />
with this decision, but it is important<br />
to the end user. We want to make<br />
sure that people have the necessary<br />
information to make good sound<br />
decisions on behalf of taxpayers.<br />
Eurobitume<br />
with Siobhan McKelvey, President<br />
Can you provide us with a brief history<br />
on the origin of your organization?<br />
The European Bitumen Association, or<br />
Eurobitume (EB) for short, was established in<br />
1969, with five national bitumen associations –<br />
ARBIT (Germany), CIB/ICB (Belgium), ESPAS<br />
(Spain), GPB (France) and RBA (UK) – making<br />
up the founding members. Several European<br />
Petroleum Companies became members during<br />
the next years. Benelux (made up of Belgium,<br />
the Netherlands and Luxembourg) was added in<br />
2007 as a Local Initiative and replaced Benelux<br />
Bitume (Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg).<br />
Switzerland joined in 2010 as a Local Initiative.<br />
Can you report on the amalgamation across<br />
Europe and how it’s working?<br />
In June, 2015, members implemented a project<br />
that integrated the three national associations<br />
in Germany (ARBIT), France (GPB) and the UK<br />
(RBA), within the overall operating umbrella<br />
of Eurobitume. As a result, we now have<br />
Eurobitume UK since January 2015; Eurobitume<br />
France since September 2015; and Eurobitume<br />
Deutschland since January 2016. These<br />
add to the existing Eurobitume Benelux and<br />
Eurobitume Switzerland. There were a number<br />
of key drivers behind this change, including<br />
the need to streamline our activities, develop<br />
one voice and increase the profile/brand of<br />
EB, develop and benefit from synergies, and<br />
increase accessibility across Europe to experts<br />
in our industry. We needed the organization to<br />
be able to adapt and respond to changes and<br />
challenges within the bitumen industry, and<br />
to expectations from important stakeholders.<br />
By building a stronger organization, we could<br />
increase our influence and be the single point<br />
of contact for bitumen issues in Europe.<br />
To support our goals and to act with a stronger<br />
voice in Europe, our members decided in 2015<br />
that we needed to expand the scope of our<br />
membership. Traditionally, EB members were<br />
only bitumen producers with refineries. The<br />
new membership now allows for an additional<br />
category of Associate Members, such as<br />
haulers, equipment suppliers, testing services<br />
organizations and academic institutions.<br />
What are you currently working on?<br />
The necessary first step of our strategy was<br />
to build a stronger organization and a new<br />
structure of our association. The next step is<br />
to review our Vision and Mission and to assess<br />
what type of structure the organization should<br />
have to meet the needs of the future. We will<br />
be identifying the building blocks required to<br />
achieve this in the coming years. In the second<br />
half of <strong>2017</strong>, a task force within Eurobitume will<br />
examine this process, and plans to have some<br />
proposals drafted to share with members by the<br />
end of the year.<br />
In the meantime, we will continue to develop<br />
the General Meetings that we hold in the ››
spring and fall, to make them valuable to<br />
members and of interest to potential new<br />
members. Our excellent relationship over<br />
the years with the Asphalt Institute (AI) in<br />
the U.S. has provided our organization with<br />
great ideas and inspiration, so that we can<br />
introduce changes that add value for our<br />
members. We have experienced, first hand,<br />
support from AI and an openness to share<br />
with EB members, as was demonstrated by<br />
an open invitation for our members to attend<br />
an AI Annual Meeting in December, 2015.<br />
As the need to work closely together on<br />
high-level industry challenges continues<br />
to grow, the relationship between our<br />
two organizations will strengthen.<br />
Collaboration on technical, communication<br />
and HS&E issues is continually needed to<br />
improve the future of our industry overall.<br />
In May this year, EB representatives and<br />
member representatives attended an<br />
AI Foundation symposium which focused<br />
on Strategic Asphalt (Bitumen) Research.<br />
The purpose of the event was to identify<br />
key areas of strategic industry research<br />
that could benefit the industry globally.<br />
Another initiative we are working on in <strong>2017</strong><br />
is to continue the promotion of the Asphalt<br />
Advantages Campaign. This European<br />
initiative has been modeled after the<br />
AsphaltFACTS campaign designed by AI<br />
and NAPA in the U.S. Together with one of<br />
our key European stakeholders, European<br />
Asphalt Pavement Association (EAPA),<br />
we launched the campaign and website in<br />
October, 2014. This year, the first Asphalt<br />
Advantage Advocate award was presented<br />
at the EAPA Symposium on June 1 in Paris.<br />
The award recognizes the support of an<br />
organization in promoting the campaign<br />
and being a strong advocate of the asphalt<br />
industry.<br />
Following the success of the Eurasphalt and<br />
Eurobitume (E & E) congress in June 2016<br />
in Prague, we have introduced a new event<br />
called the E & E Event 2018, which will be<br />
held in Berlin, June 14 and 15. Also, the usual<br />
E & E congress 2020 has been confirmed and<br />
will be held in May 2020 in Madrid.<br />
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32 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS<br />
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What is a hot topic for your organization?<br />
We continue to focus on the issues of HS&E,<br />
product specifications and future demand for<br />
bitumen. Regarding health, there have been a<br />
number of published reports and studies that<br />
address the reduction of workers’ exposure<br />
to harmful materials. Similarly, work is being<br />
done to reduce the incidents of accidents,<br />
to ensure regulatory compliance, and to<br />
improve technical and safety harmonization<br />
in the supply chain as a result of increased<br />
international shipping of bitumen.<br />
Environmental drivers include EU construction<br />
standards, reduced energy and emissions for<br />
a smaller environmental footprint, a push for<br />
the recycling of materials, green procurement<br />
and green screenings.<br />
The need to communicate positive<br />
questions and solutions to various target<br />
audiences remains a challenge, but we’re<br />
starting to see more activity in this area.<br />
Internal communication with our members<br />
is achieved through E-News, an annual<br />
review and intranet connections. External<br />
communications tools include newsletters,<br />
a magazine, the Association’s website and<br />
social media. Organized events are also a<br />
great way to disseminate information and<br />
to get to know others working in the industry.<br />
We host a congress every four years and an<br />
E & E event every four years (two years after<br />
the congress). We have a spring and fall<br />
meeting every year, as well as Bitumen Days<br />
in different countries.
UNSUNG HEROES<br />
Loyalty<br />
a motivator for<br />
unsung hero<br />
by Steve Pecar<br />
Peter Micieli<br />
Loyalty is not just a word in the asphalt paving<br />
industry. When an employer respects and rewards<br />
a valued employee, and that person does the best<br />
they can do to represent their company, then<br />
you have the formula for success.<br />
At the family-owned business of D. Crupi & Sons, Peter<br />
Micieli appreciates the loyalty the company has shown<br />
him and he makes sure he returns that loyalty each time<br />
he laces up his work boots. “You see the company growing<br />
and all of the work that has been put in by so many people.<br />
I want to do my part, and whatever I do, I want to do a<br />
good job,” says Micieli from Miami where he is taking<br />
a short break to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary.<br />
Even while enjoying the sights and sounds of South<br />
Beach, Micieli knows it is summer and there is plenty of<br />
work ahead when he gets back on the job, just like he has<br />
been doing for D. Crupi & Sons for more than <strong>30</strong> summers.<br />
Micieli started as a flag man for the company when<br />
he was 15 or 16, doing the type of tasks that may not<br />
have been too exciting, but necessary nevertheless. “It’s<br />
where I wanted to be,” he says. “My father worked for the<br />
company. It’s what he did and it’s what I wanted to do.”<br />
From flag man to labourer, then learning more of the skills of<br />
the trade, Micieli is now a main line paving foreman, looking<br />
after a crew and making sure the tough jobs get done.<br />
Dominic Crupi, vice president of the company, believes<br />
Micieli epitomizes what the asphalt industry is all about –<br />
dedication and hard work. “He’s been at it a long time<br />
and is still a young man for this type of work,” says Crupi.<br />
“He’s got a lot of experience for his age and he never<br />
stops trying to do a great job.”<br />
As a foreman, Micieli runs a 10-man crew and is in charge<br />
of such things as tracking the job and planning progression<br />
of the paving along with the general superintendent. “From<br />
large parking lots to subdivisions and municipal roads and<br />
highways, Peter is always there for us getting the job done,”<br />
says Crupi.<br />
Micieli appreciates the confidence the company has in<br />
him and the fact that he gets to handle a lot of big jobs.<br />
“I enjoy the big jobs – that is what I do best,” Micieli says.<br />
“I appreciate the responsibility that comes with tackling<br />
the big projects and look forward to dealing with all<br />
aspects of the job.”<br />
Some of the big projects he has tackled recently include the<br />
paving of Warden Avenue between Steeles and Sheppard<br />
Avenue in Toronto, and a section of 16th Avenue in York<br />
Region.<br />
For Crupi, a dedicated and experienced worker like<br />
Micieli can be hard to come by in an industry that is<br />
constantly evolving and which can, at times, see people<br />
come and go. “It’s hard to find new people that have the<br />
values and provide the effort that Peter does to fulfill our<br />
obligations to our customers,” Crupi says. “He is part of<br />
how we do that. He comes to work every day with the<br />
intention of doing his best and doing the best for the<br />
company. That is all you can really ask for.”<br />
Micieli is proud to do so and appreciates the opportunity<br />
to show his leadership skills and return the loyalty that has<br />
been shown to him. For Micieli, the next big job and the<br />
responsibility that comes with it are all the motivation he<br />
needs to keep on doing what he does.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 33
TECHNICALLY<br />
SPEAKING<br />
by Vince Aurilio<br />
Executive Director, OAPC<br />
Intersections: Approach with caution<br />
of a racetrack or a runway). In fact,<br />
slow-moving heavy vehicles at an<br />
intersection actually put more stress<br />
on pavements than those moving<br />
faster.<br />
RR20 Lundy’s lane at Drummond Road, City of Niagara Falls,<br />
rehabilitated in 2011/2012. (Niagara Region)<br />
The same traffic conditions that add to the stress<br />
of driving at intersections (about <strong>30</strong> per cent of<br />
fatalities occur at intersections) 1 also add to the stress<br />
on pavements. Whether you are a driver or pavement<br />
engineer, you should approach intersections with care.<br />
Urban traffic conditions have brought the challenge<br />
of designing pavement for intersections to the top of<br />
the agenda for municipal engineers. The heavy traffic,<br />
braking, accelerating and turning that contribute to the<br />
wear and tear on asphalt are becoming increasingly<br />
severe. Traffic is getting more congested, tire pressures<br />
are increasing, and trucks and buses are heavier.<br />
It is not just the volume of traffic that should be of<br />
concern. Intuitively, most people associate the speed<br />
of the vehicle with the stress on the pavement (think<br />
Engineers need to pay particular<br />
attention to design and material<br />
selection to ensure that the asphalt<br />
pavement at intersections provides<br />
the same outstanding performance<br />
and life-cycle cost benefits as it<br />
does elsewhere.<br />
Rutting is probably the most common indication<br />
of pavement failure at an intersection and can be<br />
the result of inadequacy of the pavement structure,<br />
poor consolidation (compaction), and/or plastic flow<br />
(permanent deformation). The Asphalt Institute in<br />
the U.S. has developed a basic strength approach<br />
to designing pavements at intersections that<br />
addresses all three failure mechanisms:<br />
1. Ensure structural adequacy.<br />
2. Select and control materials.<br />
3. Follow proper construction practices.<br />
As you would expect, aggregates play a very important<br />
role in all three steps.<br />
The most common failure mechanism at intersections<br />
is plastic flow (rutting), and material selection is key in<br />
34 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
mitigating this problem. The asphalt<br />
binder is specifically selected for the<br />
mix design at intersections (PGAC<br />
requirements are normally one-grade<br />
higher for heavy traffic conditions or<br />
for pavement where there are heavy<br />
slow-moving vehicles, and even<br />
two-grades higher for extremely<br />
heavy truck or bus traffic). The PGAC<br />
is commonly enhanced or polymermodified<br />
to achieve these grades.<br />
Aggregate properties need to<br />
be considered just as carefully.<br />
The aggregate structure must be<br />
capable of carrying the load and<br />
developing a high degree of stoneto-stone<br />
interlock to resist shearing.<br />
The need for consistent gradations<br />
is well recognized, but there also<br />
must be consistency in particle<br />
shape, texture and absorption.<br />
Both coarse and fine aggregate<br />
must be angular to provide the<br />
interlock required for rut resistance.<br />
Plastic deformation is similar to<br />
slope failure. Rounded aggregates,<br />
with a low angle of repose, tend to<br />
act like ball bearings and therefore<br />
have much less shear resistance.<br />
Crushed materials, which stay up<br />
in a stockpile, have the necessary<br />
internal friction to resist shear.<br />
Fortunately, Ontario has excellent<br />
aggregate sources that can meet<br />
these quality requirements.<br />
Recent developments in crushing<br />
equipment and techniques have<br />
also helped to improve aggregate<br />
angularity and cubicity. In many<br />
cases, washing, crushing and other<br />
secondary processing can improve<br />
marginal aggregates.<br />
Air voids are particularly important<br />
and should neither be too low<br />
nor too high. Air voids are the air<br />
spaces or pockets of air that occur<br />
in the compacted mix; mixes are<br />
typically designed at four per cent<br />
and produced between three and<br />
five per cent. Mixes with excessively<br />
low air voids can lead to flushing and<br />
potentially result in rutting.<br />
On the other hand, mixes with<br />
high air voids are more prone<br />
to durability problems. If the air<br />
void content is too high, the voids<br />
become interconnected which<br />
allows the passage of air and water<br />
resulting in poor durability. Keep<br />
in mind that density and air void<br />
content are directly related – the<br />
higher the density (or compaction)<br />
the lower percentage of air voids.<br />
Pavements are typically compacted<br />
to eight per cent air voids in-place<br />
(or 92 per cent maximum relative<br />
density). A proper design will<br />
provide sufficient air voids for<br />
stability and sufficient asphalt<br />
cement and volumetric properties<br />
for good long-term performance.<br />
Improper construction techniques<br />
can also lead to rutting. Consolidation-type<br />
rutting occurs when the<br />
pavement has not been sufficiently<br />
compacted. Under traffic loads, the<br />
aggregate particles will reorient<br />
themselves into a denser condition.<br />
Therefore, it may require more effort<br />
to get the necessary compaction<br />
with some of the stiffer mixes (with<br />
enhanced PGAC and aggregate<br />
properties) used for intersection<br />
improvements.<br />
Aggregates are, of course, only<br />
one component of a hot mix (even<br />
if they do make up 95 per cent of<br />
the pavement). It is not just the<br />
characteristics of each component<br />
of the mix, but also the interplay<br />
of those components that provides<br />
high-quality pavement.<br />
Improved asphalt intersections<br />
can be built with minimal delay<br />
for motorists, and while the initial<br />
cost may be higher than the more<br />
conventional asphalt mixes, the<br />
dramatically improved performance<br />
will result in a lower life-cycle cost.<br />
The final product will be a long<br />
lasting, cost-effective, smooth<br />
asphalt intersection and the<br />
answer to one of our biggest<br />
municipal pavement design<br />
challenges.<br />
1. Road Safety in Canada, Government of Canada -<br />
www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety2011<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 35
EXTRACTION<br />
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END-OF-USE<br />
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ENVIRONMENTAL<br />
ESSENTIALS<br />
by Christina Wright<br />
Don’t do it!<br />
Whenever I am asked, this is my immediate response:<br />
DON’T DO IT! It has a high potential for large individual<br />
and corporate fines and is a serious offence under<br />
multiple regulations and jurisdictions. In the vast majority<br />
of cases, the individual or company has absolutely no<br />
idea of the risk of this action, which applies in both rural<br />
and urban areas.<br />
What am I talking about? Simply filling in or altering onsite<br />
natural or naturalized water bodies, such as creeks<br />
and streams, ponds and ditches, even when water is not<br />
there all the time. Alterations include, but are not limited<br />
to, diversion, widening, dredging, and damming.<br />
The key legislation that applies to this action is the<br />
Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA), enforced by the<br />
province, and the Fisheries Act, enforced by the federal<br />
government. However, many other jurisdictions may<br />
be involved such as Environment and Climate Change<br />
Canada, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry,<br />
Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and<br />
local conservation authorities.<br />
The two factors that make this a very high risk action<br />
are low burden of proof and high fines.<br />
Unlike the Environmental Protection Act, which requires a<br />
“likely” burden of proof for an adverse effect, the OWRA<br />
and Fisheries Act only require that an action may cause<br />
an impairment for a conviction. Altering a naturalized<br />
ditch or a natural creek may constitute impairment if<br />
the action interferes with any living organism that lives<br />
in or comes into contact with the water or soil around the<br />
water, changes the water colouring, causes suspended<br />
sediment in the water, and so on. Filling in a naturalized<br />
ditch or a natural creak would be permanent destruction<br />
of the water body. It is important to note that, even if<br />
these actions may not cause an on-site impairment, they<br />
may cause impairment downstream, such as alteration to<br />
an off-site fish habitat or your neighbour’s water supply.<br />
Unlike the EPA, which only has a maximum penalty, the<br />
Fisheries Act has both a minimum and maximum penalty.<br />
For a first offence, fines under the Fisheries Act can<br />
range from $15,000 to $1 million for individuals and<br />
from $75,000 to $4 million for corporations.<br />
If (even after reading this article) you still need to fill<br />
in a natural water body and/or naturalized ditch, GET<br />
PERMISSION FIRST! This can be a complicated, time<br />
consuming and expensive process involving multiple<br />
(municipal, provincial and federal) agencies. Hiring<br />
professionals to assist you is a must!<br />
Christina Wright is Environmental Compliance<br />
Specialist at BCX Environmental Consulting, a Canadian<br />
environmental engineering company specializing in<br />
providing expert environmental consulting services.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 37
OAPC PRESIDENT’S DINNER AND AGM<br />
QUALITY FORUM<br />
OAPC Chairman Mike McLean and Yellowline Asphalt Products<br />
Ltd. Sales Manager Kourtney Adamson volunteer on stage as<br />
magician Ray Chance wows the crowd at the OAPC President’s<br />
Dinner, which was held at the Mill Street Brew Pub in Toronto’s<br />
Distillery District on the evening of March 29. The Live Auction<br />
for Asphalt Research and raffle draw were also a highlight of the<br />
evening. The auction brought in $27,165 and $3,250 was raised<br />
through the raffle for a total of $<strong>30</strong>,415, which was donated to<br />
the Asphalt Research Fund. Thank you to all who attended who<br />
contributed to the event’s success.<br />
ORBA and OAPC hosted the Quality Forum on March 29 at the<br />
Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. The forum, which was led<br />
by John Allen and David Caplan of Global Public Affairs, brought<br />
in 52 members to discuss practical solutions on achieving and<br />
maintaining quality standards for Ontario’s asphalt industry.<br />
OAPC SPRING OPERATIONS<br />
OAPC’s annual Spring Operations Seminar, held in conjunction<br />
with the National Heavy Equipment Show at Mississauga’s<br />
International Centre on April 6, brought in an impressive<br />
127 attendees. Highlights of the seminar included key note<br />
speaker Bob Bekye’s presentation on how asphalt plants<br />
can best address community concerns. Bekye is Manager of<br />
Environmental Affairs for Milestone Contractors in Indianapolis.<br />
All seminar presentations are available within the Members Only<br />
section of the OAPC website and are available for download.<br />
WELCOME!<br />
Keynote speaker and memory expert Bob Gray entertains OAPC<br />
AGM delegates while at the same time revealing the untapped<br />
potential we all possess to improve our memory. The AGM was<br />
held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto on March <strong>30</strong><br />
and 131 delegates in total attended the <strong>2017</strong> OAPC AGM and<br />
President’s Dinner on March 29 and <strong>30</strong>. All presentations from<br />
the AGM are available on the Members Only section of the<br />
OAPC website.<br />
OAPC welcomes new member AMMANN Group. AMMANN<br />
Group is a world-wide supplier of mixing plants, machines<br />
and services to the construction industry with core expertise<br />
in road building and transportation infrastructure.<br />
38 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
NATIONAL HEAVY EQUIPMENT SHOW<br />
ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO ROAD<br />
SUPERVISORS TRADE SHOW<br />
Plant and Paving Committee member Daulta O’Hanlon and<br />
Membership Committee past chair Paul Holroyd discuss the<br />
benefits of asphalt pavements with a National Heavy Equipment<br />
Show delegate. The show, which was held at the International<br />
Centre in Mississauga from April 5 to 7, brought in over 13,000<br />
delegates, which made for plenty of foot traffic and good<br />
conversations at the OAPC booth.<br />
<strong>2017</strong> OAPC PARTNERS IN<br />
QUALITY ROAD TOUR SEMINARS<br />
This year’s OAPC Partners in Quality Road Tour Seminars brought<br />
a robust program to participants throughout the province.<br />
Making stops in Sudbury, Ottawa, Kitchener and Vaughan from<br />
April 18 to 27, the seminars brought together 257 attendees.<br />
Presentations included the Ontario Ministry of Transportation<br />
(MTO) Auditor General action plan update and Bituminous<br />
Section updates; MTO regional reports and forecasts; municipal<br />
forecasts; updates from CCIL; an update on the ORBA OAPC<br />
Quality Forum; OAPC marketing & communications initiatives;<br />
best practices in using asset management to improve roadways;<br />
innovations in Warm Mix Asphalt technology; and tack coating.<br />
All presentations are available on the OAPC website under<br />
the Publications & Education tab. A special thanks goes<br />
out to the sponsors who made the seminar series possible:<br />
Aecon Materials Engineering, Canadian Asphalt Industries<br />
Inc., Dufferin Construction Company, McAsphalt Industries<br />
Limited, Multisolv, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Rankin<br />
Construction Inc., Steed and Evans Limited, R.W. Tomlinson<br />
Limited, and Yellowline Asphalt Products Ltd.<br />
OAPC Executive Director Vince Aurilio and Marketing &<br />
Communications Director Abigail Wright Pereira greet<br />
delegates at the Assocation of Ontario Road Supervisors<br />
Municipal Public Works Trade Show which was held at the East<br />
Perth Recreation Centre in Milverton from June 7 to 8. The<br />
annual show brought in 200 exhibitors and 1,800 delegates.<br />
OAPC AWARDS ROADS SCHOLARSHIPS<br />
Congratulations to eight Roads Scholarship recipients<br />
who were awarded $1,000 each during award ceremonies<br />
which took place March 27 at Centennial College, May 24<br />
at Conestoga College, June 2 at Fleming College and June 6<br />
at Georgian College. Award recipients were Pedro Moreira<br />
and Brandon Wilk of Centennial College, Liam Scherbinsky<br />
and Frank Sanchez of Conestoga College, Benjamin Ruah<br />
and Nathan Woodrow of Fleming College and Josh Foran and<br />
Lucas MacDonald of Georgian College.<br />
OAPC Chairman Mike McLean addresses the crowd at the Ottawa<br />
Partners in Quality Road Tour Seminar which was held at the<br />
Centurion Conference & Event Center on April 20.<br />
Daulta O’Hanlon, OAPC Plant & Paving Committee member and<br />
District Sales Manager for Wirtgen Group, presents Mary Spencer,<br />
Georgian College Professor of Engineering and Environmental<br />
Technologies with the Roads Scholarship plaque during the<br />
award ceremony on June 6.<br />
SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 39
ENBRIDGE RIDE TO CONQUER CANCER<br />
Congratulations to Team Aecon and Team CRH for completing the 10th annual Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer from<br />
June 10 to 11. Past presidents Donn Bernal, Paul Lum and Mark Rivett participated in the 200-kilometer ride, spanning Toronto,<br />
Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Collectively 5,042 participants raised $20,533 million for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.<br />
In Memoriam<br />
Harvey Teneycke passed away at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington on June 26, <strong>2017</strong>,<br />
at the age of 80. Harvey had a long career in the asphalt industry, starting at Flintcote<br />
and going on to work at MSO (Pounder), Ashwarren (Lafarge) and Sifto. Deepest<br />
condolences from the industry to his wife and family.<br />
NEW MUNICIPAL PAVING<br />
PROJECT OF THE YEAR AWARD<br />
OAPC and OGRA have collaborated through their Municipal<br />
Liaison Committee to create a Municipal Paving Project<br />
of the Year Award. The purpose of the award is to promote<br />
and recognize the successful collaboration between the<br />
municipality and hot mix asphalt producers for excellence<br />
and innovation in paving projects in Ontario. The finalists<br />
from each OGRA Zone will be announced at the <strong>2017</strong> OAPC<br />
Fall Seminar with the winner awarded at the 2018 OGRA<br />
Conference in February. The project will not have any<br />
minimum contract value and both capital and maintenance<br />
projects are eligible. Applications will be available by the<br />
end of July.<br />
save the date!<br />
AUG31 CLUBLINK<br />
ORBA OAPC<br />
ANNUAL MEMBERS’<br />
GOLF TOURNAMENT<br />
STATION CREEK – GORMLEY<br />
nov18<br />
ORBA HOLIDAY GALA<br />
RITZ CARLTON – TORONTO<br />
nov<strong>30</strong><br />
OAPC FALL ASPHALT<br />
SEMINAR<br />
UNIVERSAL EVENTSPACE – VAUGHAN<br />
40 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
<strong>30</strong> Years
THE LAST WORD<br />
by Abigail Wright Pereira<br />
Looking back and moving forward<br />
I’d spent the day job searching and the sun was beginning<br />
to set early on a frozen January afternoon back in 2012.<br />
That was my cue to pick up my late mother-in-law from<br />
the Alzheimer Society’s adult day care program. It had<br />
only been a year and a half since getting married and<br />
immigrating to Toronto from Chicago where I’d never<br />
owned a car and rarely drove. Given so many major life<br />
changes in a short amount of time, sometimes I felt as<br />
if I had joined the Witness Protection Program. However,<br />
with a newly issued permanent resident card in hand, I was<br />
eager to hold onto new opportunities and grow roots in<br />
a new country. Just before grabbing my coat to leave the<br />
house, a job alert popped up that captured my attention:<br />
Marketing and Communications Director for Asphalt<br />
Industry Association.<br />
“Hmm… the asphalt industry. I wonder what that is all<br />
about,” I thought while driving down Millcreek Road. My<br />
curiosity was piqued and that evening I applied for the job.<br />
A few weeks later I interviewed with an exceptional group<br />
of people that would later become my mentors: the 2012<br />
Executive, Murray Ritchie, Bruce Armstrong, Fernando<br />
Magisano, Bentley Ehgoetz and then OHMPA CEO Mike<br />
O’Connor. Not knowing much about asphalt except for<br />
the fact that it is made of asphalt cement and aggregate,<br />
it’s black and it’s the surface upon which we drive, I knew<br />
that I was a dark horse in the running.<br />
However, not knowing much about something before trying<br />
my hand at it because it interests me seems to be par for the<br />
course. As a high school sophomore I tried out for the diving<br />
team because I wanted to learn how to dive. Several belly<br />
flops and cannon balls later, I didn’t make the team, but did<br />
learn how to dive in head first. After graduate school, a friend<br />
who worked at the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago suggested that<br />
I apply for their communications manager position. Having<br />
never taken a ballet lesson in my life, I felt a bit out of step<br />
in applying. However, I got the job and have since developed<br />
a life-long love and appreciation of the ballet.<br />
You win some and lose some when taking a chance and<br />
reaching out for the brass ring of opportunity. I am very<br />
thankful to OHMPA for taking that chance and giving<br />
me the opportunity to serve as the marketing and<br />
communications director for the past five and a half years.<br />
As an industry outsider, the learning curve was steep. I would<br />
not have been able to do my job without the investment<br />
and mentorship of numerous members. A few months after<br />
joining OHMPA, Donn Bernal took me on a plant tour and<br />
paving job to show me the complexity of what goes into<br />
paving a road from start to finish. While at the job site, it<br />
dawned on me that paving is a lot like a ballet: it’s physically<br />
intense and the timing of the entire process must be perfectly<br />
choreographed to produce what is in essence a work of art –<br />
a smooth ribbon of asphalt road.<br />
In 2014, we decided to produce a 40th anniversary video<br />
featuring OHMPA founders and past presidents which<br />
included John Edward DeToro, Don Budd, Joe Boccia,<br />
Cosimo Crupi, Don Wilson and John Loughnan. Through<br />
listening to their stories I learned a great deal about the<br />
history of the association and, moreover, about the great<br />
people that make up this industry.<br />
It has been an honour and privilege to have had this<br />
opportunity to help tell the story of Ontario’s asphalt<br />
industry. While I am moving on from my position at the<br />
Road House, my appreciation of the industry is not unlike<br />
my appreciation for the ballet. It will be an enduring affinity.<br />
Thank you for giving me that gift.<br />
42 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS