Final report.

NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITY ; NTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Construction and Maintenance ;

Over the past two decades the role of SHA has shifted from quality control (QC) of materials and placement techniques to quality assurance (QA) and acceptance. The role of the Office of Materials Technology (OMT) has been shifting towards assurance of material quality and oversight of contractor quality control operations. Since SHA deals with a variety of materials and construction processes there is a wide spectrum of specifications and acceptance requirements. It was the objective of this study to identify typical material QC/QA procedures and a) examine their conformance in relation to the federal requirements for defining QA plans, Independent Assurance (IA) procedures, and material certification; b) identify potential improvements to existing SHA QA plans, when necessary; c) assess product variability based on production QC data, when available; and iv) evaluate risks related to material acceptance data when applicable (i.e., when acceptance data are available). To address these objectives the research team had several meetings with SHA engineers from the (1) Soils and Aggregates Division, (2) Concrete Technology Division, and (3) Structural Materials and Coatings Division in order to identify the type of materials to include in the study, and fine tune the specific steps of the research approach to follow.

US Transportation Collection