 U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration |
MEMORANDUM |
| Subject: | Information: Approval of Comparable Accreditation Body – 23 CFR Part 637 | Date: | October 9, 2019 |
| From: | /s/ original signed by Brian J. Fouch, PE Director, Office of Preconstruction, Construction and Pavements |
In Reply Refer to: | HICP-1 |
| To: | Division Administrators Directors of Field Services Federal Lands Highway Division Engineers Office of Technical Services |
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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulations at 23 CFR 637.209 (a) (2), (3), and (4) require certain laboratories to be accredited by the AASHTO Accreditation Program or a comparable laboratory accreditation program approved by the FHWA. On September 22, 2004, the FHWA published a Notice in the Federal Register (69 FR 56818) documenting the criteria to be used to determine a comparable laboratory accreditation program. Those criteria include recognition by the National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA) following technical requirements based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology NISTIR 7012 document "Technical Requirements for Construction Materials Testing".
On July 9, 2019, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), was formally recognized by NACLA for meeting technical requirements in construction materials testing. The ANAB meets the requirements for comparable laboratory accreditation bodies listed in the September 22, 2004 Federal Register Notice. Therefore, the laboratories that are accredited by ANAB for construction materials testing are considered to meet the requirements in 23 CFR 637.209(a) (2), (3), and (4).
The Laboratory Accreditation Bureau (L-A-B) was previously recognized by NACLA in 2011 and subsequently purchased by ANAB in 2015. Therefore, this memorandum replaces the memorandum dated October 7, 2011, which documented the recognition of L-A-B as a comparable laboratory accreditation program.
If you have any questions, please contact Jeff Withee at 202-366-6429 or jeff.withee@dot.gov or LaToya Johnson at 202-366-0479 or latoya.johnson@dot.gov.