Unsung Heroes

Lucky break leads to Wade’s longcareer at McAsphalt

By Steve Pecar

Alton Wade readily admits that he came by his long career at McAsphalt kind of by accident. Back in 1990, while still a chemistry student at Seneca College, he worked for a cleaning company at the McAsphalt facility after hours, tidying up after everyone else had gone home. A friend, thinking that Wade might have an “in” at the company, asked him to help him get a full-time job.

“The manager told me he didn’t have a job for my friend,” Wade explains. “But because I already worked there and they knew me, he offered me the job. And that’s how my career began. Luckily there were no hard feelings from my friend.”

Those who have worked side-by-side with Wade since then are quite sure the right decision was made. “His experience and long-term commitment to McAsphalt is unbeatable,” says Sina Varamini, Manager of Research and Development. “He has seen McAsphalt in the past and McAsphalt in the present. And he is going to be part of McAsphalt in the future. That alone makes him a great asset to a lot of research and development projects and will continue to make him a valuable part of the McAsphalt Research Centre.”

When Ron Dulay started at the company in 1998, Wade already had several years of experience working in the lab. Back then, Dulay says, Wade already had a lot of responsibility testing emulsions and helping out a newcomer on the job. “At that time, no contractor was doing their own testing,” says Dulay, Laboratory Supervisor at the McAsphalt Research Centre. “Everything was coming to us so it was pretty wild, pretty busy, and Alton was one of the reasons we kept going. He did a lot of work testing emulsions and at the same time he would be helping me working on the hot mix. He’s always been incredible at what he does.”

Coming up to his thirty-first anniversary at McAsphalt, Wade says his early days were spent working on emulsion testing then on products such as bridge deck membranes and waterproofing membranes. Eventually he moved on to hot mix design and most recently has been specializing in micro surfacing design. Wade says keeping busy has always been something that motivates him on the job, as well as enjoying what he does. He likes learning new things and staying up-to-date on all of the latest trends in the industry. “

The idea that you can take a liquid asphalt, turn that into an emulsion, and mix that with an aggregate source to produce something that is a hard surface that we can actually drive on is fascinating,” Wade explains. “And the chemistry behind it -- you can take different chemistry and get different results to make the same thing, so you’re always learning and growing.” Currently Wade is involved in performance research and development where he serves as the senior technician. It is another task he says will both challenge and educate him. “Right now you can project what will happen to a road surface 20 to 30 years ahead of time -- that’s fascinating,” he says. “Doing these tests gives you incredible information that will allow you to project ahead and plan.”

As he looks back on his career, Wade believes his relationship with the company has been long-lasting because it is a good fit and he has always worked well with his colleagues. “There’s never been a reason to change,” he says. He is also thankful that McAsphalt has had the confidence in him to add responsibilities as well as give him the opportunity to tackle new projects. “It’s a great career,” Wade says. “I look forward to going to work every day to do things I am very interested in. You can’t ask for more than that.”