Features Aggregates Roads & Paving
ORBA celebrates excellence in the road building industry

The Ontario Road Builders’ Association (ORBA) has bestowed several awards and honours to members in the industry for their service and commitment to the association and the road building industry in Ontario.

The awards were announced during ORBA’s 2022 Summit, which took place over four days throughout January and February.

“It is always a great pleasure to recognize the best our industry has to offer,” said Bryan Hocking, chief executive officer of ORBA. “The road building industry takes great pride in health and safety, infrastructure innovation, governance, academic achieving in engineering and excellence in construction.”

ORBA’s 2022 Summit recognized its members in the following categories:

Routly Safety Awards

The Routly Safety Awards recognizes ORBA member companies for their superior performance in worker health and safety in three categories. The awards are presented annually at the ORBA convention. Recipients are determined from statistics provided annually by Infrastructure Health & Safety Association.

• Category One Routly Safety Award for 2021 – B.R. Foulton Construction Ltd.  – for achieving up to 100,000 average person hours without a lost-time injury.
• Category Two Routly Safety Award for 2021 – L B Leveque Bros. – for achieving more than 100,000 average hours without a lost-time injury.
• Milestone Award – Roto-Mill – 1,034,479 hours without a lost-time to injury.

Transportation Infrastructure Innovation Award

The 2021 Transportation Infrastructure Innovation Award recognizes innovative techniques and methods, applied on actual projects or in activities or processes, performed by an ORBA member company, which improve the quality and/or reduce the cost of construction.

RELATED: ORBA names Kevin Machej as its 2022 president

Kiewit is the winner of the 2021 Transportation Infrastructure Innovation Award for the Eurovia Vinci Ottawa LRT Stage 2 project.

2021 ORBA Distinguished Service Award

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a representative from a member company who has contributed significantly to the objectives of ORBA during the past year, through volunteering of time and resources and through the leadership shown in achieving those objectives.

Steve Manolis, general manager of Coco Asphalt Engineering, a division of Coco Paving Inc. is the 2021 recipient.

Manolis was elected to the OAPC Executive (formerly OHMPA) in 2016. His contributions, commitment and dedication to the road building and asphalt and paving industry has earned him several recognitions including OAPC’s Earl Kee Volunteer of the Year Award (2016) and the Bleeds Black Award (2017).

2021 ORBA Director of the Year Award

The Director of the Year Award recognizes an ORBA director who has contributed significantly to the objectives of the Association during the past year through leadership, volunteering of time and resources and working on ORBA committees and special projects.

Rocky Coco, president of the Coco Group is the 2021 award winner. Coco is the embodiment of this award. He has faced leadership in these unprecedented times with courage and grace, and has dedicated his time to boldly tackle issues facing our industry during yet another unpredictable year.

OAPC Honorary Life Membership Award

The OAPC Honorary Life Membership Award recognizes a member for their dedication to advancing the objectives of OAPC and their notable service to the council. The 2021 recipient is Cosmo Crupi, D. Crupi & Sons Ltd.

ORBA Scholarship Recipients

• ORBA Civil Engineering University Scholarship – Duncan Waugh, First-year Civil Engineering student at Western University
• ORBA J.D. Chick Scholarship – Andrew Pavan, Civil Engineering, Final-year Civil Engineering student at McMaster University

MTO Asphalt Paving Contractor of the Year – 2021

Winner: Lavis Contracting Co. Ltd. for their work on Highway 21, near Forest (Contract 2020-3042).

Finalists:

• For work on Highway 402, near Strathroy (Contract 2020-3022), Dufferin Construction Company.
• For work on Highway 17, near Bruce Mines (Contract 2020-5163), Pioneer Construction Inc.

MTO Concrete Contract of the Year – 2021

Winner: McLean Taylor Construction for their work on Highway 21, near Bayfield (Contract 2020-3044). The concrete for cast-in-place operations was supplied by Lavis Concrete.

Finalists:

For work on Highway 401, at Flagg Road near Morrisburg (Contract 2018-4023)

• The prime contractor is Louis W. Bray Construction Limited
• The concrete for cast-in-place operations was supplied by Lafarge Canada
• The pre-cast structural girders were supplied by Decast Ltd.

For work on Highways 7/8, near Kitchener (Contract 2020-3074)

• The prime contractor is McLean Taylor Construction
• The concrete for cast-in-place operations was supplied by St. Marys CBM