Asphalt task force formed to improve Ontario's roads

As a rash of potholes are flooding the streets across the province, the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association (OHMPA), a group representing producers and suppliers of asphalt cement, has formed a task force to investigate the quality of the product.

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The task force was formed last month to review the pavement quality across Ontario and make recommendations to improve it.

"There has been some concerns over the past couple of years some roads may not be performing up to expectation," said Doug Duke, executive director of OHMPA. "There's some instances of premature cracking."

"We've had some concerns for a few years now, and I think that's been expressed around the entire province," said Mark Winterton, the engineer for the City of Windsor, Ont.

"We're hoping that it gives us some tangible results that we'll be able to use in producing a better product and better roads for the city."

Pothole season

Windsor's maintenance crews spent much of March filling pot holes that have been left in Windsor's roads following a record-breaking winter.

Crews worked around the clock filling about 300 potholes a day.

Asphalt is made up of a mixture of aggregate and liquid asphalt cement.

"It's like a cake mix and every road is built using a slightly different recipe," Duke said, adding the harsh winters over the past couple of years can greatly impact the quality of roads.

"When we go from freezing to thaw and back to freezing and back to thaw as we did quite a bit last year, that's a tremendous concern for the ability of a road to perform properly."