Partners in Quality symposium hits the mark for municipalities by Lara Henry It’s no secret that a significant factor in building quality roads is building a solid relationship between road owners and industry. OHMPA (now OAPC) knew that twenty years ago when it launched its first Partners in Quality symposium. 18 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
The idea behind the symposium was to create a forum where members could meet owners and specifiers, get the latest information, and address any issues. It soon became clear that one location couldn’t fill the need for this kind of dialogue, and the provincial road tour was born. In 2010, OGRA joined OHMPA (now OAPC) and MTO in the Partners in Quality (PIQ) symposium. Today the program presents a unique opportunity for industry members, MTO, municipal and consulting engineers to meet face-to-face, bringing some of the best minds in the industry together to learn from each other. From the outset, a key stakeholder group for PIQ has been municipalities. In fact, in 2009, initial work was started on the establishment of the OHMPA/OGRA Municipal Liaison Committee as direct a result of feedback from members and municipal owners during PIQ. This came out of a request by all stakeholders for a more robust and productive relationship to improve specifications and provide consistently high quality products. “Talking to municipalities and making sure they are involved is an essential element of the Partners in Quality symposium,” says Vince Aurilio, Executive Director, OAPC. “We try to bring information to PIQ that is relevant and important to both our members and to municipalities. This year, for example, I presented on asphalt quality and the results of the latest ORBA member survey. The presentation on asset management and how it relates to road improvement was also extremely useful to show our members how municipalities select roads for work.” David Shelsted, Director of Roads and Transportation Services, City of Greater Sudbury, is a long time PIQ attendee and attended this year along with a number of his city colleagues. “The benefit to attending PIQ for a municipality is to find out what is current in the industry, the changes that are happening, and hearing about the issues as they are occurring. The presentations are really good for getting updates on information that are relevant to municipalities,” he says. Another consistent component of PIQ directly relevant to municipalities is the regional forecasts from MTO and other government updates. “At the most recent PIQ, it was very beneficial to municipal staff to hear MTO talk about the audit. Their presentation provided insight into where we can look at our own municipalities and see where possible improvements can be done,” says Robert Burlie, Manager of Road Operations, Etobicoke/York District, City of Toronto and 2016 president of OGRA. “It was also helpful to hear from MTO on the new specifications. We look to MTO for their insight into emerging issues and so it’s helpful to see where they are heading,” he adds. Adds Shelsted, Greater Sudbury: “There is a strong MTO presence, and they present their current work programs and specification changes, so if you attend you get first hand information and updates from them.” Hearing directly from MTO can also help municipalities with their planning. “Municipalities can find out from MTO what they are doing in the regions and how it may directly impact local municipalities,” says Chris Bradley, Director of Public Works, Peterborough County. “For example, in my region there are only three paving companies. With a small number of suppliers, a big MTO job can directly impact the timelines of any municipal jobs and how we might schedule them.” Bradley made two presentations at the PIQ stop in Ottawa, one on the Ottawa and eastern region municipal ›› SUPPLYING A FULL RANGE OF MATERIALS TESTING EQUIPMENT FOR SOIL, CONCRETE AND ASPHALT SINCE 1972 Proud distributor of the following product lines : Sales rep in Ontario Asphalt Content Furnace NCAT Testing Screen TS-1 Faryar Khosrokhah E : faryark@geneq.com T : (647) 391-1356 10700, Secant St., Montreal, Canada H1J 1S5 info@geneq.com T 514-354-2511 1-800-463-4363 F 514-354-6948 Visit our website WWW.GENEQ.COM SUMMER <strong>2017</strong> 19
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