Cost Effective Quality Assurance Practices in Highway Construction

The estimated value of the U.S. transportation infrastructure is over $7.0 trillion. The challenge is preserving the quality of the investment. State and federal departments of transportation have methods and procedures for best quality, but vary significantly. With the variations comes opportunity to assess the cost-effectiveness of different strategies and make recommendation on practices that are most successful. A survey was created and sent to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey was aimed to capture information on construction finished product testing methods, optimized/reduced sampling techniques, innovative QA practices that measure multiple performance criteria and QA processes that are rapid and cost effective. There are many testing methods and procedures being used throughout the U.S. This thesis will allow state and federal transportation agencies to look at the findings and possibly implement them into their own agency with hopes of saving time and money for future projects