Several member companies of Flexible Pavements of Ohio (FPO) are interested in employing qualified engineering or construction management students as interns or co-ops. Qualified students are those who have participated in FPO’s scholarship program, taken the participating universities’ asphalt technology course or participated in the mix design competition. At the end of this article is a table that contains contact information for companies that have chosen to participate in this program. This information has also been given to university co-op coordinators.

Interested students may work through their university co-op coordinator, contact the company representatives directly or send their resumes to FPO attn: William Fair, PE, in which case FPO will make the resumes available to our member companies. (No personal information will be posted on our website.)

FPO has worked with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to make Level 2 asphalt technician approval available to engineering students in order to make them more employable in the asphalt industry. ODOT has committed to full cooperation with a program for a conditional level 2 technician classification for university engineering students. Here’s how it works:

FPO will encourage the universities that teach a Hot-Mix Asphalt Pavement technology course to include basic information that students will need to pass the Level 2 exam. FPO and ODOT will provide Level 2 training manuals and ODOT spec books for coverage in the asphalt courses or for self study by the students.

Upon employment, students will be permitted to work under the supervision of an approved Level 2 technician while getting the necessary practical experience in running the various laboratory equipment and tests. The employing company will have to see that the student gets (1) sufficient hands –on experience with the lab tests to be able to pass the practical part of the exam and (2) the nuclear radiation safety training certificate required to operate the asphalt content gauge.

The employing company will have to notify ODOT in a letter that the student has had the necessary hands on experience with the test equipment prior to scheduling the exam.

The student or the company will have to make an appointment with the ODOT asphalt lab to take the Level 2 written and practical exams.

Contacts for the companies are listed below. Barrett Paving is particularly interested in students from UC or Dayton. Valley Asphalt is interested in students from UC and OCAS. Another company, Gerken Paving, already has a co-op program with BGSU.