RC110 JanFeb 2024 - Magazine - Page 24
ROAD BUILDING
PAVING THE WAY
Road building technologies attract young skilled workers to sector
by Andrew Snook
I
Andrew Snook is a
freelance business-tobusiness writer based in
Mississauga, Ont.
24
RENEW CANADA – JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
comfortable with it,” says Rod Stephens, president of All
Roads Construction, based in the Vancouver area.
With the wave of skilled operators heading towards retirement continuing to grow, Stephens says these technologies are vital for contractors to remain competitive.
“These guys who are 60 years old and have had 40
years of experience, they’re quite good on their own. But
we don’t have 40 years to train the new kids how to do
things. So, we need to use technology to sharpen their
learning curve. And they’re quite capable of doing it, and
they love it,” he says.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ report,
Bene昀椀ts of Construction Equipment Technologies and their
Impact on Society, highlights four types of equipment technologies that have made signi昀椀cant impacts over the past
20 to 30 years: machine and grade control; engines and
drivetrains; digital control systems; and machine telematics. Sara Feuling, AEM’s senior director of construction,
says the No. 1 reason contractors have embraced new
technologies is because of their impact on training inexperienced operators.
“Training people is expensive. It’s time consuming, and
time is money more than anything in this industry. It pulls
the good guys o昀昀 what they’re doing to help train these
people. And if you don’t have to do that, and you can
throw them into the seat and it doesn’t take a long time for
them to get up to speed, it’s huge,” Feuling says. “I think
we’re going to see that more and more.”
Investments in the future
All Roads Construction is a leader when it comes to
investing in the latest road building technologies. The
company has been featured around the world for some of
its investments.
In 2020, All Roads Construction became the 昀椀rst company in Canada to build a state-of-the-art 2020 Gencor
300TPH Skidded Asphalt Ultraplant, which meets emission guidelines for some of the strictest places in North
America like the Greater Vancouver area and California.
More recently, the company became the 昀椀rst in Canada
to introduce Topcon’s SmoothRide system and Pavelink
system, and the Notch Wedge Safety System from Willow
Designs. The company prides itself as being “the most
technically advanced paving contractor in Canada.”
“I’ve got to give our team credit for leading the charge
and trying to get the rest of the industry up to speed on
using these technologies, because they work,” Stephens
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ALL ROADS CONSTRUCTION
N OUR WORLD of ever-changing and evolving technologies,
it comes as no surprise that each new generation grows
up to be more tech savvy than its predecessor. This has
been particularly true for Millennials and Generation Z,
which have been brought up in a world where technologies have evolved at a faster pace than ever before.
While the younger generations’ adoption of the latest
technologies has been a boon for industries that are able to
adapt and embrace technologies quickly, others have historically struggled to keep up, and it has made it di昀케cult
for them to attract and retain young skilled workers who
are looking to use these technologies in their careers.
The construction industry as a whole—road building
sector included—has been slower to adopt new technologies than many other industries, and it can be argued
that has exacerbated the industry’s pre-existing skilled
labour shortage. The latest estimate for the skilled labour
shortage in Canada’s construction sector is a shortfall of
about 261,400 positions from now until 2032, according to
BuildForce Canada’s report, Construction and Maintenance
Looking Forward: An Assessment of Construction Labour Markets from 2023 to 2032. Most of this shortfall comes from a
massive wave of retirements already underway, coupled
with a lack of young skilled workers entering the industry.
While the industry overall has been historically slow
to adopt the latest technologies, this has started to change
with more and more companies putting signi昀椀cant investments into their 昀氀eets and overall operations to remain
competitive—this is particularly true within the road
building sector. Some of the biggest advantages that the
latest technologies have provided are attracting the next
generation of skilled workers into the road building sector
and getting new operators up to speed quickly on various
types of heavy equipment.
“Our industry across the world is having a shortage
of skilled people, and parents don’t tell their kids, ‘Why
don’t you grow up and become a paver out on the highway?’ But what these kids have all done is grown up with
gaming in their households. And so, when you get them
out and they see they’re using a touchscreen, really letting
technology move and adjust everything, they’re totally
