The History of Cold Chon

The company was established in 1930 by the late Dr. D. D. Coyle, Michael Kennedy, Col. Barge, Michael Martin, George Lee and Mr. Michael O'Malley to make bitumen emulsions for road surface repairs , one of the first such enterprises in western Europe. Emulsion production began in 1933 after 3 years of laboratory testing.

Patrick Moynihan a chemist by profession was the scientist behind the project and worked with Cold Chon for almost 60 years until his death in 1990 having made an enormous contribution to the company and the industry during those years. The original plant was located in Long Walk in the city centre and remained there until 1961 when it was relocated to Oranmore beside the railway on the site of the closed Oranmore railway station.

Originally the plant imported bitumen in drums by rail from Dublin , but moved to using bulk transport from Dublin by rail to Oranmore.

Rail was the main means of transporting bitumen from Dublin to Oranmore in the 1960s but the service began to decline and a gradual change to road began in the late 1960s and was completed in the mid 80 's when rail supply to the Oranmore station ceased . Cold Chon Trucks became widely known on the Dublin – Galway road like a milk run with people always amused by the name- 'Chinese or what' was the usual comment but the name has become synonymous with Galway over the years. The name comes from using a COLD process to modify the elements in Hydrocarbon Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, COLD CHON.

Some drivers and their trucks travelled over a million miles each over these years. In 1999 ColdChon built its own bitumen importation terminal in Galway Docks with Bitumen arriving directly from oil refineries in France , UK , Belgium and Holland. Very few people realise that Bitumen leaves the refinery at 150-160 C and is kept at this temperature until it is processed at the the plant in Oranmore kept at this temperature in the ship during the voyage to Ireland and while being transferred to the tanks in the Docks, through a heated underground pipeline.

The insulated storage tanks are kept at this temperature while they contain bitumen and it is transferred to the plant in Oranmore. This state of the art terminal is run by Michael Walsh from Maree . Oranmore –having 35 service years with the company - It is acknowledged by the industry that he maintains the tidiest, cleanest bitumen terminal in Europe.

The Emulsion plant in Oranmore was initially a very manual set-up, with many operatives looking after production, but this was fully automated by John Killeen and John Thornton our chief Chemist in the early 80's, which allowed a consistent quality product to be achieved – this was regarded at the time as a first in the Industry in Europe. The move in the industry from oil based road binders to emulsions saw substantial growth in the business in the late 80 and the 90s. Due to health and safety considerations, (Bitumen Emulsions are much safer than the oil based products they replaced) only Bitumen Emulsions are used in the road surfacing in Ireland today. Tar - previously used for the same purpose was a product of Town Gas production has not been used on Irish Roads since the early 1960s, when town gas production ceased in Ireland

The end products are supplied mainly to Local Authorities throughout Ireland for the maintenance and repair of all of our road network and our trucks travel the island on a daily basis both delivering product and applying it on the road. Many well known Galway people are associated with this logistic including the late Tom Henry from Salthill, PJ Naughton from Oranmore and currently Tommy Joyce [football fame] and Peter McDonagh from Galway. Today many different products are available for different repair techniques for our roads.

The company has won many National Awards for Safety and Safety Quiz competitions over the years.