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OHMPA celebrates 40 years

Eddie DeToro, who joined his father’s company, John DeToro Advance Concrete Contracting Co., in the 1950s, founded OHMPA in 1974. The Association was borne out of the oil shipment embargo that caused a 300 per cent increase in oil prices. As the story goes, according to a feature story on DeToro in the Fall 2014 edition of OHMPA’s Asphaltopics: “The jobs we quoted on and started in 1973 were now affected by the realities of the oil crunch in 1974. We were expected to live up to our job quotations and commitments, but it priced us right out of the market.” The rest is history. 

Forty years later, OHMPA continues to work closely with municipal and provincial transportation officials in the establishment of standards for quality, materials, and binders, as well as other important specifications for road construction in Ontario. 

At the annual OHMPA Fall Asphalt Seminar, annually held at different locations across Ontario, over 400 registrants from throughout the paving and transportation industry gathered to discuss some of the most important issues currently facing the industry. 

A pair of Keynote Speakers, Gerry Huber and John D’Angelo, addressed performance issues encountered in asphalt binders in their respective presentations. Huber discussed work currently being done by industry committees to look at the use of Re-refined Engine Oil Residue (REOR) and how it affects performance. Several states in the U.S. have already banned its use, but the industry in Canada and the U.S. has recognized that there is insufficient scientific data to support or discount its use. D’Angelo discussed the work being done to develop a new performance-based binder test. The need, as it has been identified, is to “provide users with alternatives to the empirical Superpave Plus tests.” D’Angelo concluded that the Multiple Stress Creep Recovery test can identify how the polymer, binder and processing will affect performance in one simple test. 

In addition to the keynote presentations, two more industry veterans were recognized with OHMPA’s Bleeds Black award. Introduced last year, the Bleeds Black award is “presented to individuals whose passion and commitment for all things asphalt is so great that, when cut, they bleed black.” 

This year’s recipients are: 

 • Dr. John Emery, a Project Consultant who has helped OHMPA and MTO in the development of standards and specifications for hot mix asphalt over the last 30 years. Emery currently is an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo and McMaster University. 

 • Fernando Magisano, who is the Vice-President of Technical Services at K.J. Beamish Construction Co. Ltd. Magisano has spent 34 years at Beamish, also serving as the Chair of the OHMPA Tech Committee for several years and as OHMPA President in 2010. 

Approximately 2.5 million lane kilometres of provincial roads are paved with hot mix asphalt every year in Ontario. 

For more information about OHMPA, visit www.ohmpa.org.