The future of a partially complete hot in-place asphalt recycling pilot project on The Kingsway has been called into question after the city issued a work stoppage last week.
The contractor, Ajax-based Road Surface Recycling, fired back by publicly distributing an open letter to city staff espousing the project’s merits and criticizing the city for putting it on pause.
In conversation with Sudbury.com this week, Road Surface Recycling vice president technology and research Frank Crupi didn’t mince words in skewering city staff.
He questioned city staff members’ credentials, and said their action against his company sends a message of “f*** you” to city council.
Adopting what he perceives to be the collective voice of the city’s engineering department talking to city council, Crupi said, “We’re not going to do what you tell us to do and we’re going to discredit this process you made us put a contract out for.”
Suggesting wrongdoing on the part of city staff, he said, “Obviously there’s something going on, because it really stinks.”
Crupi said he’ll be taking his crew of approximately 20 people and leaving the site in a few days unless the city lets them get back to work.
At issue is a third-party round of quality tests the city ordered on material already laid.
The testing follows Ontario Provincial Standards specifications, city engineering services director David Shelsted told Sudbury.com, and will take three to four weeks to see results.
Although the city is not legally mandated by the province to undertake the tests, Shelsted said the city is doing so, “to ensure we’re representing value for money.”
“The contract would still continue if the material meets specifications, and we would expect (Crupi) to fulfill that obligation to do the remaining road,” Shelsted added.
Although Crupi showed Sudbury.com the results of his company’s on-site testing, and the city’s complementary tests through the WSP consulting firm, which he noted come close to meeting targets, Shelsted said the additional round of testing the city has ordered will go further.
“There is follow-up testing that requires a length of time to understand what’s in the material and how much it’s been rejuvenated,” he said. “We look at construction methodology ... and follow-up material testing that’s more in-depth.”
If the contractor finds the three- to four-week wait unreasonable, they can demobilize and do work for other clients, he added, noting there’s no obligation for them to remain in Greater Sudbury during the weeks-long wait for results.
The hot in-place asphalt recycling project is being undertaken on The Kingsway between east of Second Avenue and near the Highway 17 bypass.
The process includes four steps:
- Softening of the asphalt pavement surface with heat
- Scraping and/or mechanical removal of the surface material
- Mixing of the material with recycling agent, asphalt binder, or new mix
- Placement of the recycled mix on the pavement surface
Although the city has already been recycling asphalt grindings (Fielding Road’s rebuild used grindings from Struthers Street and Walford Road), they’ve been laid underneath the top layer of asphalt.
The hot in-place asphalt recycling pilot project on The Kingsway is a new process for the city, and uses recycled material on the surface, with liquid asphalt binding it together.
In the open letter to city staff which Road Surface Recycling staff distributed door-to-door and handed out at Tim Hortons, they estimated that going with hot in-place asphalt recycling instead of a conventional paving project would shave 80 per cent from the project’s total cost.
The city estimates the savings associated with hot in-place asphalt recycling as being between 30 and 50 per cent, Shelsted relayed.
If the project on The Kingsway is cleared to continue, similar efforts on Municipal Road 35 and Radar Road, as well as other potential stretches of road, could follow.
“Any time you can recycle and look at savings, that’s good for the taxpayer and something we’re considering,” Shelsted said.
“We’re hopeful, and we know other jurisdictions are using (hot in-place asphalt recycling), too, and we think this will be a good process in the future for opportunities as we look at renewing our pavement throughout the municipality.”
For his part, Crupi said he’s pessimistic the project will pick up again.
“Now they’re going to nitpick and look for problems,” he said. “I can find problems in anything. I can find problems in a new house ... if I start ripping the drywall off.”
He estimates the work stoppage is costing him tens of thousands of dollars per day.
“It’s probably going to all end up before a judge eventually, but I have a feeling that they’re going to settle it very quickly,” he said. “I’m counting on the people turning on the city.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
