ASPHALTopics | Summer 2021 | VOL 34 | NO 2

MacDonald, Coco Paving’s Estimator
and Project Manager. “It’s a much more
green solution to rehabilitating a road
as it utilizes 100 per cent of the existing
roadbase with minimal importing
requirements. The CIREAM base
constructed from recycled materials
is comparable in strength to those
made from virgin aggregate.”
Coco Paving resurfaced the prepared
County Road 6 with hot mix asphalt
(HMA) under a $1.2 million contract. The
company first laid down 6,500 tonnes of
Superpave 19.0 (Category C) with 58-34XJ
asphalt cement to a depth of 50 mm
for the new base layer. It then finished
County Road 6 with 5,800 tonnes of
Superpave 12.5 (Category C) 58-34XJ
for a 40 mm lift.
This contract required Coco Paving to do
the job entirely during June 2020. Add in
the need to keep traffic moving through
the area plus the physical distancing
protocols of COVID-19 for the crew, and
this was not an easy project to complete
on time.
Coco Paving met its deadline by using
its mainline paving equipment to do one
lane (direction) of the road completely,
followed by the other per lift. “We had
our Caterpillar 1055 asphalt spreader out
there fed by our shuttle buggy (MTV), and
three of our asphalt rollers,” MacDonald
says. “We also flagged and barrelled the
entire site to keep traffic moving safely.
Depending on the volume from either the
north or south, we had to alter our traffic
control operation to ensure minimal
driver frustration.”
Both the project and the finished product
satisfied Greg McGrath, Construction
Superintendent for the County of Simcoe.
“We have a great collaborative working
relationship with Coco Paving with good
two-way communication. The work was
completed within the scheduled timeline
and on budget.”
R.W TOMLINSON’S REVITALIZATION
OF DOWNTOWN SMITHS FALLS
Ottawa’s R.W. Tomlinson Ltd. spent
almost all of 2020 completely rebuilding
320 metres of Beckwith Street (part of
Highway 15) in downtown Smiths Falls.
14 OAPC | ASPHALTOPICS
The overall $8.1 million Beckwith Street
Revitalization project transformed the
downtown core from its traditional
angled-parking layout to a multilane
system that added parallel parking,
physically-separated bikes lanes, broader
sidewalks, and a much more logical traffic
flow to this heritage community.
Paving isn’t all R.W. Tomlinson did on
Beckwith Street. “We also rebuilt or
replaced all of the underground utilities,
including a 1900s vintage sewer, and
added three new lit intersections, new
street lighting fixtures, new interlock
paving, concrete sidewalks — the whole
shebang,” says Robert Enright, one of
the company’s project managers. R.W
Tomlinson also worked closely with local
contractors who were working to restore
and renovate the entrance of Beckwith
Street’s historic Rideau Hotel, built in
1901, into an apartment building.
The Beckwith Street Revitalization
wasn’t easy to execute. Beyond doing
the project during COVID-19 with all of
its health safeguard issues, the scope
Simcoe County Road 6. (Coco Paving)
of the transformation upset some Smiths
Falls residents who were attached to the
street’s angle parking. “There was quite
a bit of vocal opposition to the changes
early on,” says Troy Dunlop, the town’s
Director of Public Works and Utilities.
“Nevertheless, the town council was very
committed to advancing a progressive
street design that would serve future
generations.”
After excavating the original pavement
from Beckwith Street, R.W. Tomlinson
laid down 898 tonnes of Superpave 19.0,
Category D (PG 64-34) HMA in a 50 mm
lift. This was covered with 846 tonnes
of Superpave 12.5 FC2 Category D (PG
64-34) HMA in a lift of 40 mm. The bike
lanes were paved with 133 tonnes of
HL3F (PG 58-34) HMA.
To manage traffic flows without
compromising quality, the company
paved first one side of Beckwith Street
and then the other. This was done by an
eleven-person crew using a Caterpillar
3000 Series paver and a Roadtec shuttle
buggy to keep it loaded. They were