Ontario Paver of the Year

Excellence in road building was once again recognised at the annual Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) convention, held in early February at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Award winners were recognised for their work-manship in each of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s five regions, including the provincial Paver of the Year.

The coveted 2001 Ontario Paver of the Year Award and Southwestern Region award winner was Huron Construction Co. Ltd. for the company’s work on MTO contract 2000-0029. This 26.4 km long job on Highway 401 near Chatham involved the reconstruction of the two westbound lanes from 0.6 km east of Bloomfield Rd. easterly to 0.1 km east of Victoria Rd. (formerly Hwy 21). Valued at $24.2 million, the job was scheduled across two construction seasons, with a 12.6 km long section completed between June 7– November 16, 2000, followed by a 14.2 km section between April 16 and November 22, 2001.

Preparatory traffic control work involved the building of two temporary detours in the median and the placing of 14 km of temporary barrier in the eastbound lane, allowing westbound traffic to be transferred into a single lane in the eastbound lane and the closure of the westbound lanes.

Stage 1 pavement work began with the milling of all of the existing asphalt. Subcontractor Roto-Mill Services Ltd. utilized two CMI PR-800-7 pavement profilers to remove 190 mm of asphalt from the west-bound lanes and expose the underlying base concrete.

Shoulder excavation and sewer line work followed, with the excavation of both the existing median and outside shoulders to an average depth of 240 mm. The subgrade was widened and fine graded while continuous pipe subdrains with outlets were laid along each side of the highway. Granular B2 base material was then placed, compacted and fine graded on the shoulders up to the same elevation as the exposed concrete. Sewer crossings and extensions were completed, allowing the job of concrete base concrete rubbilizing to begin. Contract manager and plan administrator Joe Doyle reports that this was the first job called by the MTO that specifies the rubbilization of an in-place concrete base into a modified Granular B2 base material.

The rubbilizing process utilises resonant beam technology to break up the concrete and debond its embedded reinforcement, without degrading the subgrade. (See Aggregates & Roadbuilding, December 1996 and August 2001 editions for further details on rubbilizing and its applications).

After the rubbilizing job was completed, a series of full width Granular A lifts totalling some 225 mm thick were placed across the shoulders and rubbilized concrete until the road’s new elevation was reached. Meanwhile, Huron’s structural subcontractor completed the removal and replacement of existing barrier walls, as well as repair work on an existing bridge deck.

The subsequent paving operation called on Huron’s paving crew to place five lifts of asphalt, including two 50 mm HL4 binder lifts, two 50 mm Heavy Duty Binder Course (HDBC) lifts and a 40 mm Dense Friction Course (DFC) surface lift. The job had full paved shoulders, with 3 m and 1 m wide shoulders on the driving and passing lanes respectively. After paving, Stage 1 of the contract was completed by the installation of rumble strips to both lanes, the application of new pavement markings to the paved surface and the application of granular sealant to the newly placed and graded shoulders.

The westbound lanes were then reopened, allowing normal traffic flow conditions through the winter months. Site work resumed the following spring utilizing similar working methods, and the job was wrapped up on schedule last fall.

Weather wise, job records show 10 rain days out of 108 working days in year one and 15 rain days in 125 working days in year two. Doyle reports that rain had only a minor impact on each stage’s progress as work crews were typically working on a firm concrete or granular surface. Work was scheduled such that the rubbilized concrete surface was immediately covered with 300 mm plus of Granular A that itself was soon covered by the HL4 binder lifts. Huron’s weather-related headaches were caused instead by very dry, hot and humid summer conditions. These necessitated the importing of up to 45 500 litres of water each hour to help grading crews meet granular base compaction targets and reduce the amount of dust generated by grading operations.

In terms of traffic control, Doyle favours the traffic diversion approach utilised on this job. "This design allowed the motoring public to move through the construction zone at a reduced speed of 80 km/h with minimal delays. At the same time, it provided complete separation from our work crews to optimize construction zone safety.

Advance signage was set up in accordance with the MTO’s new Book 7, "Temporary Conditions", and warned approaching motorists of the construction zone well in ad-vance. As a further measure, our access vehicles using slip-ons and closed inter-changes, minimising the need to merge con-struction vehicles with other road traffic."

Most construction contracts have their unexpected challenges and this one was no exception. An earth side slope, benched due to its 22 m height, was about 90 per cent complete when it began to slide, causing a major delay in the earth grading schedule. As a result, the slope was redesigned and revised construction drawings issued by consultant Dillon Consulting. Doyle credits dirt moving contractor Henry Heynk Construction with keeping the job on schedule, by completing the new slope design in a safe and timely manner while moving a job total of 218 229 m 3 of dirt and installing 57 590 m of drainage items. Other subcontractors included the fol-lowing firms: Facca Inc. who installed 27 914 m of temporary concrete barrier; Roto-Mill Services who milled and reclaimed 272 560 m 2 of asphalt, International Resonant Breaking Inc, who carried out 203 808 m 2 of base concrete rubbilizing and Miller Paving Ltd. who handled 61 735 m 2 of granular sealing.

Other subcontractors were Royal Fence Ltd., KDN Pavement Marking, Ron Fields & Son Electrical, and A&M Landscaping Inc. who completed 249 550 m 2 of seeding and cover.

Overall, Doyle credits the successful completion of the job to the hard work of everyone involved including administration staff, shop mechanics, crushing crews, paving crews, road crew and lab crews, as well  as excellent communication, job planning and teamwork between subcontractors, Dillon Consulting and ministry staff.

Huron’s asphalt plant is a 250 tonnes/h capacity portable Boeing 200 drum-mix plant and supplied the job from Huron’s Chatham pit, giving an average 12 km haul to the site. Broker’s tri-axle trucks with an average payload of 21 tonnes hauled asphalt from the plant to the site paving train. This consisted of a Roadtec SB-2500B Shuttle Buggy, feeding a Cedarapids CR451 Remix paver fitted with Topcon automatic screed control and a non-contact ski. Behind the paver, a Cater-pillar CB-534C double drum roller in the breakdown position was followed by a Bomag 20R rubber-tired roller and Bomag BW161AD double drum finishing roller.  These rollers achieved compaction densities of 93.8 per cent for the HL4, 93.5 per cent for the HDBC and 93.4 per cent for the DFC.

Raw material suppliers included AAROC Aggregates and Recycling who provided coarse aggregate and stone dust for the HL4 mix. This mix also utilised in-house fine aggregate, crushed RAP from Hwy 401 and McAsphalt Industries PGAC 58-28 asphalt cement. Lafarge Canada Inc. supplied HL8 and HL3 sized coarse aggregates and manufactured sand fine aggregate for the HDBC hot mix that utilised McAsphalt Industries’ PGAC 64-28 asphalt cement. The DFC hot mix incorporated Ontario Trap Rock coarse and fine HL1 aggregates and McAsphalt Industries PGAC 64-28 asphalt cement. Job asphalt tonnage totalled 161 374 tonnes with 76 197 tonnes of HL4, 58 020 tonnes of HDBC and 27 157 tonnes of DFC.

Granular A aggregates required by the job totalled 360 035 tonnes, supplied by Lafarge Canada Inc.’s London pit and Huron’s Chatham operation (virgin Granular A and RAP A). Granular B2 aggregates totalled 295 942 tonnes, including the in–place pulverized concrete. Imported material was supplied by Lafarge Canada Inc.’s Windsor depot and Huron Chatham (crushed concrete) operation.

Huron’s job team included: contract manager and plan administrator Joe Doyle; site superintendent Andrew Lawrence; assistant contract manager and Quality Control plan administrator William Snowdowne; paving superintendent Joe VanVaerenbergh; granular foreman Ross Annett; layout fore-man Paul Oldershaw and Quality Control laboratory supervisor David Smith.

Huron Construction Co. Ltd. is part of The Miller Group.

Aecon Construction & Materials Ltd. took the Eastern Region award for its work on MTO contract 2000-0081, a 22 km long rehabilitation project on Highway 41 south of Eganville, Ont. Work on this two-lane highway included $1.5 million of paving and was completed in just six weeks in the fall of 2000. The pavement design was somewhat unusual on this contract insofar as 150 mm of existing asphalt was pulverized and left in place as granular base material.

The pulverized material was graded and compacted, then covered with a 50 mm lift of virgin Granular A and two 40 mm lifts of new HL4 hot mix, giving an overall grade raise of 130 mm. Subcontractor Roto-Mill Services completed the pulverizing job in advance, using two CMI RS-650 pulverizers. Colin Burpee, Aecon’s project coordinator, found that the key to a successful job was to reduce, as far as possible, the distance between the pulverizing operation and the crew that followed later to grade and compact the pulverized material. "Even with the low volumes on this highway, we found that road traffic running on the newly pulverized surface caused some uneven compaction, requiring extra grading work to achieve the required crossfall. After that, the job was relatively easy, thanks to our well trained, experienced paving crews and modern equipment. " Aecon’s 363-tonnes/h capacity portable Gencor drum mix plant was located in the R.J. Selles’ Eganville limestone quarry and supplied the paving crew with up to 3000 tonnes-day of new hot mix. A total of 29 000 tonnes of HL4 was shipped to the paving spread included a Roadtec SB-2500 Shuttle Buggy and Caterpillar AP-1000 paver fitted with Topcon automatic grade and slope control.

Compaction was completed by a Caterpillar CB-634 double drum vibratory roller in the breakdown position, a Caterpillar PS-300B in the secondary position and a 10- tonne Dresser 714 static finishing roller.

Each machine made two passes on each lift to achieve target densities. In terms of raw materials, the surface HL4 mix included a blend of limestone and granite in accordance with Special Provision SP 110F12 for non-carbonate content, while the base asphalt utilised all limestone aggregates. Both mixes utilised Shell Canada’s PGAC 58-34 asphalt cement from the company’s Montreal refinery. Limestone asphalt aggregates and granular base materials were provided by R.J. Selles’ Eganville Quarry, while its Pruner pit provided asphalt sand. Granite aggregates were supplied from Smith Construction’s Turcotte site.

Aecon’s project team here included Fred Lake, asphalt supervisor; Wayne Bruce, senior manager materials division and Colin Burpee, project coordinator.

Central Region

Not content with winning one regional award, Aecon Construction & Materials Ltd. also took the Central Region award for its performance on MTO contract 2000-0058, upgrading a 12 km section of Highway 7 from Brock Rd. as far as Brock St. in Brooklin. The job was finished in last June after an October 2000 start, and included milling the existing surface asphalt, road widening for the addition of new turn lanes and $2.6 million worth of repaving. Part of the road widening involved an environmentally sensitive area, where gabion walls were constructed within 300 mm of a protected creek.

On site, working conditions were made difficult by heavy traffic volumes and an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. split daily shift, designed to minimise rush hour delays. The split shift presented several challenges to Aecon’s team, including long days for site crews and interrupted trucking schedules. In addition, extensive temporary line painting was required after both milling and base asphalt operations in order to restore lane markings between daytime and evening operations. Last but not least, the split shift required extra care from Aecon’s skilled paving crews to achieve smoothness targets, as split paving runs meant double the normal amount of lateral joints. Contract conditions required that paving runs in each lane be matched to avoid longitudinal steps, while lateral joints in each lane had to be matched at the end of each paving run.

Subcontractor Roto-Mill Services Ltd. completed the milling job with its CMI PR-800-7 FL pavement profiler and the resulting reclaimed asphalt pavement was shipped to the Lynde Shores Conservation Area for use on parking lot grading and pathways. Three asphalt mixes were utilised on the contract, beginning with one lift of HL8 on the widened sections up to the same level as the milled central section. A 50 mm lift of Medium Duty Binder Course (MDBC) was then placed across the full width of the pavement and capped by a 40 mm surface lift of HL1.

Aecon’s paving equipment on this contract which, like the Eastern Region job, included a Roadtec SB-2500 Shuttle Buggy, and Caterpillar AP-1000 wheeled paver, fitted with Topcon automatic grade and slope control and sonic averaging ski. Compaction was completed by a Caterpillar CB-634 double drum machine in the breakdown position, a Caterpillar PS-300B pneumatic roller in the secondary position and a Ferguson steel drum finishing roller.

The hot mix for this contract was supplied from the company’s CMI 250-tonnes/ h capacity portable drum mix plant, set up in the Brock Rd. pit of Vicdom Sand & Gravel (Ontario) Ltd, and hauled to site in Aecon’s 21-tonne tri-axle trucks.

Asphalt quantities included 18 000 tonnes of HL1, 2200 tonnes of HL8 and 26 000 tonnes of HL1. Raw material sources for the asphalt included the Clarkson refinery of Petro-Canada for PGAC 58-28 asphalt ce-ment, while the Kirkfield Quarry of TRT Aggregates Ltd. and Vicdom’s pit supplied fine aggregates. Coarse aggregate for the HL1 mix came from Aecon’s Marmora Quarry. TRT’s Kirkfield Quarry supplied coarse aggregate for the other two mixes. Granular base materials used on shoulders and road widening totalled 127 000 tonnes, with 52 000 tonnes of Granular A and 75 000 tonnes of Granular B, all supplied by the Vicdom pit.

Aecon’s project team on this contract included Dean Smaglinski, paving supervisor, Wayne Bruce, senior manager, Materials Division and Colin Burpee, project coordinator.

Northern Region

The MTO’s award was won by Fowler Construction Company Limited for its work on MTO contract 99-228. This contract involved the upgrading of a section of Highway 69 at Parry Sound from two to four lanes, beginning at Badger Road, 5.8 km north of Highway 141 and running northerly for 6.0 km as far as Highway 518. Valued at $26.5 million, this job started in October 1999 and was completed in September 2001.

The comprehensive scope of work involved construction of a four-lane highway from grading and drainage through to granular base, paving and lighting, as well as a new overpass and snowmobile culvert.

Gilles Truchon, P. Eng, Fowler’s Highways Divisional Manager, notes that the road design required the excavation of 1.4 million m 3 of rock. This large volume and an aggressive completion date meant working year-round with night rock excavation work that placed extreme demands on people and equipment. The weather also impacted on the job schedule, with high temperatures during the summer of 2001 delaying some of the concrete work until cooler weather arrived.

In terms of construction zone safety, most of the work was performed off the existing highway, but a great deal of planning was still required to ensure the safety of construction crews and motorists at numerous road crossings and the connections between new and existing highway. Additional safety measures included the wide-spread use of portable lighting units in night excavation, haul and fill areas, as well the extensive sanding and snow removal of haul roads during the winter months. Job operations were shut down altogether at times of poor visibility.

The rock cut and fill operation presented its own set of challenges. In some areas, rock had to be removed from beneath high-tension power lines, necessitating blast planning and design on a case-by-case basis. Elsewhere, the job resembled a full-scale quarry operation, as a number of rock cuts were so deep that blasting had to be completed in two lifts. When it came to rock fill, thin fill lifts were required as part of the new rock compaction specification, triggering the construction of numerous ramps and temporary roads to progressively fill low areas. This specification called for a maximum lift thickness of 1.5 m and a maximum individual lump size of 2/3 of the lift thickness. Each lift must then be compacted by a D8 dozer or equivalent machine making a minimum of six passes across the whole lift area. Truchon adds that highly variable job conditions also required several specialized pieces of equipment to be brought in. For rock excavation, Fowler acquired two 5.4 m 3 capacity Caterpillar 5080 hydraulic front shovels and ten Caterpillar 769 rock trucks.

At the other extreme, the job also included the removal of deep muskeg beds which were tackled with long reach John Deere 892 and Caterpillar 330 excavators. Two company asphalt plants supplied hot mix to the project, with a portable 400-tph Gentec drum plant in Fowler’s McDougall quarry supplementing production from the company’s fixed 5000-lb Barber-Greene batch plant at Parry Sound. Hot mix was hauled to the job site in conventional tri-axle trucks, with a mixed fleet of company and broker units. The paving train consisted of a Roadtec SB-2500 Shuttle Buggy ahead of a Cedarapids CR551 paver equipped with a Stretch 20 screed. Three compactors operated behind the paver – a 9.3-tonne Bomag BW164 AD dual drum roller in the breakdown position, a 21- tonne Bomag BW20R eight-wheel pneumatic secondary roller and Dynapac CC42 double drum unit to complete surface finishing.  Average densities of 94 per cent were achieved.

Nearly 48 000 tonnes of asphalt were laid, with 28 701 tonnes of Heavy Duty Binder (HDBC), 4728 tonnes of HL4 and 14 189 tonnes of HL3 modified mix. Extensive use was made of processed on-site rock, which provided granular base materials as well as HL3, HL4 and HL8 coarse aggregate and screenings. Fowler’s hot mix designs utilised McAsphalt Industries’ PGAC 58-34 asphalt cement together with Akza Nobel-Redicot 82-S anti-stripping additive. Truchon cites strategic planning, scheduling and a diversified staff as key contributors to the success of this project, as well as the wealth of company road building experience and a productive equipment fleet.

Excellent subcontractors and a dedicated group of workers ensured the success of this project.

Camaro Enterprises Ltd. won the MTO’s Northwestern Region award for its performance on MTO contract 2000-240. This job on Highway 105 was valued at $4.92 million and included grading, granular base and hot mix paving on a 39.9 km stretch of Highway 105 south of Ear Falls. Work began with the production of aggregates at the centrally located MTO White Pine pit over winter 2000/2001. Site grading began on May 1, 2001 and paving was completed by September 20, 2001.

One of the distinctive aspects of this job was Camaro’s use of a Cedarapids Grayhound CR 551RX Remix paver, one of the first of its type sold in Canada, now five years old and playing a key role in its sixth MTO project to date. Derek Walker P.Eng, Camaro’s project engineer, reports that the combination of the paver’s remix auger system and proper paving techniques eliminated the need for a transfer vehicle (MTV) on this job. He adds that the company has recently taken delivery of a second Remix paver based on this unit’s successful track record.

On site, Camaro teamed the paver with a Caterpillar CB-634C double drum break-down compactor, Dynapac CP21 rubber-tire secondary compactor and Bomag BW161AD double drum finishing roller.

This combination of equipment earned 100 per cent of the compaction bonus available for the densities achieved. Overall, Camaro were awarded 97 per cent of the total End Result Specification (ERS) bonus available for a quality paving job.

Some 71 000 tonnes of HL4 asphalt was supplied by a CMI-UVM1700 portable drum plant, combining McAsphalt Industries’ PGAC 52-34 asphalt cement with fine and coarse aggregates from the White Pine pit at a daily average rate of 1700 tonnes.

Over 100 000 tonnes of granular base materials were supplied including 86 400 tonnes of Granular A and 21 000 tonnes of Granular B. Other material quantities included 15 000 m 3 of earth excavation as well as 52 culvert locations totalling 924 m in length with pipe diameters ranging from 500 mm to 1400 mm.

Overall, Walker attributes the performance on the award-winning job to effective Quality Control (QC) monitoring, together with the efficient coordination of construction traffic by grading foreman Walter Ambrozik and paving foreman Daryl Boulanger.

By Robert L. Consedine, Editor

Aggregates and Roadbuilding Magazine
4999 St Catherine Street West. Suite 315
Westmount, Quebec H3Z 1T3
Tel: (514) 4879868 Fax: (514) 4879276
EMail: rocktoroad@sympatico.ca

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