Dufferin Construction named MTO’s Paver of Year for Hwy 403

Dufferin Construction Company has been named the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario’s (MTO) 2010 Hot Mix Paving Contractor of the Year.

The contractor received the award for its work on Contract 2009-2010, which included resurfacing approximately 11.3 kilometres of Highway 403, eastbound and westbound, between Brantford and Hamilton, as well as Shaver Road, Regional Road 52, Alberton Road and the Sunnyridge Road overpass. The project consultant was the Morrison Hershfield office in Burlington. The project owner was MTO.

The construction project began on schedule on May 9, 2010 and finished on time on Sept. 24, 2010.

“It was a fairly tight schedule, with all work occurring within a single paving season, and much of the work was done at night, requiring significant lane closures and restrictions,” says Rob Wojtkowicz, manager, Asphalt Operations with Dufferin Construction.

“But it was a great project for us, with a strong emphasis on quality throughout all stages of production, delivery and placement of hot mix asphalt from the lab, from the plant and the people in the field. Everyone came together to execute the job with quality at top of mind.”

Dufferin Construction acted as the project’s general contractor, responsible for all levels of project management related to construction activities. The contractor also performed the work and executed the quality management plan. Key components of the project included placing 60,660 tonnes of hot mix asphalt and 6,100 tonnes of granular materials, and milling out and removing 304,000 cubic metres of partial depth asphalt.

The base course of the roadway consisted of SP19.0 aggregate supplied by Dufferin Aggregates, followed by SP12.5FC2 aggregate Supplied by Ontario Trap Rock and Hutcheson Sand & Gravel Ltd. Performance Graded Asphalt Cement was provided by Bitumar Inc.

“We supplied the hot mix asphalt through Cayuga Asphalt & Construction,” says Wojtkowicz. “We had two of our plants, Cayuga Hamilton and Cayuga Brantford, providing material for the job.”

The contract employed a full paving crew, with the bottom mat paved lane by lane, and the upper mat paved in echelon, with two pavers side by side.

“One of the challenges of the job was to maintain the flow of the product consistently to the paver, and avoid load segregation” says Wojtkowicz.

MTO judges noted that they were particularly impressed with the contractor’s use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP).

“They received very good scores for innovation, in this case by using a lot of RAP,” says Alain Beaulieu, Head, Construction Contracts Section, with MTO’s Contract Management and Operations Branch.

“MTO contracts allow up to 20 per cent RAP, but typically contractors use 10 per cent. Dufferin used 20 per cent RAP for the Superpave 19.0 and 15 per cent for the Superpave 12.5. Using more RAP increases the risk of not providing a consistency of mix, but Dufferin pushed the envelope and their score numbers came out on top in consistency, smoothness and segregation.”

Other award finalists were: Gazzola Paving Ltd., for Contract 2008-2004, Highway 409 from Highway 427 to East of Islington Avenue; Coco Paving Inc. for Contract 2010-4015, Highway 417 from Highway 416/417 (Interchange 131) easterly to Woodroffe Avenue (Interchange 127); and Pioneer Construction Inc. for Contract 2009-5104, Highway 144 from 0.2 kilometres north of Highway 661 northerly for 22.8 kilometres.

Projects are nominated for the award by regional heads of Quality Assurance in each of MTO’s geographic regions.

The award was presented at the annual meeting of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association in Toronto.