Booming population paving the way for success for local asphalt company

“This year we’re anticipating (to manufacture) more than 100,000 tonnes (of asphalt),” said Al Duffield, a dispatcher with ASL Paving Inc. in Saskatoon.

The majority of that will be shipped to the Circle Drive South bridge project where ASL is the contracted asphalt supplier, Duffield said.

Slated to be open in late September, the historic project is Saskatoon’s largest infrastructural undertaking and includes a new bridge, four new interchanges, a brand new stretch of freeway and laneways for both pedestrians and cyclists.

Saskatoon is ASL’s most important client and “we’ve been growing with the city as have a lot of other businesses,” said James Fraser, the general manager.

“(The bridge) will be a very big priority for us this year as we’re nearing completion,” he said. ASL will be paving down approximately 130,000 tonnes of asphalt this year for the bridge alone. Fraser added that ASL is within the city’s top 100 companies.

The massive bridge, however, isn’t the company’s sole project.

The 62-year-old business has also been rewarded the city’s spring road contract meaning the company is responsible for supplying Saskatoon with up to 20 tonnes of asphalt a day in order to fix the city’s roads.

On Tuesday, city trucks could be seen at the Ontario Avenue plant were road mix was picked up for the first time this year.

Currently, ASL can produce 350 tonnes of asphalt an hour. Al Duffield said although there are no immediate plans to expand the Saskatoon plant, in the next five years, ASL is looking to purchase new silos or holding tanks.

“The way the city is growing,” Duffield said, “we have to stay with or ahead of everyone else.”

ASL is one of three major asphalt companies in Saskatoon.

news@panow.com

by Fan-Yee Suen

Booming population paving the way for success for local asphalt company

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