Improved Regionalization of Quality Assurance (QA) Functions

US Transportation Collection2018PDFTech ReportDave, Eshan V.Daniel, Jo SiasMedina, Ricardo AKotowski, MichaelPerkins, AlanUniversity of New HampshireNew England Transportation ConsortiumUniversity of Vermont. Transportation Research CenterNew England Transportation ConsortiumNew EnglandUnited StatesGuidelinesInspectionPrecast concretePrestressed concreteQuality assuranceQuality controlRecommendationsRoad constructionCost savingsNETC 13-3, NETCR110Final reportThis study conducted an in-depth review of the current quality assurance (QA) processes for precast (PCE) and prestressed concrete elements (PSE) used in the highway construction in the New England region. On basis of the review of current practices and through input from the six New England State Transportation Agencies (STAs) a set of unified QA process recommendations have been developed. Adoption of unified QA processes will enable STAs to be able to cross-utilize inspection resources and allow producers to follow same quality control (QC) guidelines. Both of these are expected to realize cost savings for STAs. This will result in a significant save in the financial resources by reducing the number of QA inspectors while the manufacturers for different construction projects around the region follow a unified procedure for maintaining and evaluating the quality of their products. Recommendations for plant/producer pre-qualification, pre-pour, during pour and post-pour QC and agency inspection practices have been developed and are provided in this report.143