U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
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Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
| REPORT |
| This report is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information |
 |
| Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-12-027 Date: May 2012 |
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-12-027 Date: May 2012 |
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In view of the different transportation department construction quality assurance (QA) programs and their importance toward obtaining low-cost, high-quality construction, a need still exists to measure how well each program is working. This report documents the investigation of different transportation department construction QA programs and provides recommendations for improvements that can increase the effectiveness of QA programs.
Jorge E. Pagán-Ortiz
Director, Office of Infrastructure
Research and Development
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the use of the information contained in this document.
The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document.
Quality Assurance Statement
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) provides high-quality information to serve Government, industry, and the public in a manner that promotes public understanding. Standards and policies are used to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of its information. FHWA periodically reviews quality issues and adjusts its programs and processes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Technical Report Documentation Page
| 1. Report No.
FHWA-HRT-12-027 |
2. Government Accession No. | 3 Recipient’s Catalog No. | ||
| 4. Title and Subtitle
Evaluation of State Quality Assurance Program Effectiveness |
5. Report Date May 2012 |
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| 6. Performing Organization Code | ||||
| 7. Author(s)
James S. Moulthrop, P.E., Fugro Consultants, Inc. |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
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9. Performing Organization Name and Address Fugro Consultants, Inc. |
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) |
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11. Contract or Grant No. |
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| 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address
Office of Infrastructure Research and Development |
13. Type of Report and Period Covered
Final Report |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code
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| 15. Supplementary Notes
The Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) was Fred Faridazar, HRDI-20. |
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| 16. Abstract
In early 2008, the Federal Highway Administration issued a task order under the Advanced Quality Systems Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract for a contractor to quantify the effectiveness of State quality assurance (QA) programs. The objective of the study was to develop, apply, and make recommendations for the use of a procedure that transportation departments could use to quantify and improve the effectiveness of existing quality assurance programs. Based on the knowledge and experience of the research team, four State highway agencies (SHAs) were chosen to participate. An introductory project meeting was held in December 2008, but due to personnel problems, only three agencies participated. The goal of the meeting was to discuss the objectives and scope of the project with State representatives and request their input. The three SHAs agreed to provide QA data from construction projects in their State for the team to analyze. Because sufficient data were not available to accomplish the original task, the scope was modified to use an analysis of acceptance procedures included in the agencies’ specifications instead of using actual QA data. In summary, four SHA construction specifications were selected for analysis from three SHAs, two for hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements and two for portland cement concrete (PCC) pavements. The study shows that either the computer program SPECRISK or computer simulation can be used to analyze the statistical risks of most, if not all, specifications. Both HMA pavement specifications and one of the PCC pavement specifications were amenable to analysis by SPECRISK because they are based on percent within limits as the statistical quality measure. The remaining PCC pavement specification was based on averages and had to be analyzed by computer simulation. Probabilistic Optimization for Profit (Prob.O.Prof) was one of the software programs anticipated to be useful in the analysis. However, it required data that were not available and thus could not be used in the analyses. The report includes analysis of the specifications, particularly the risks involved and recommendations for improving areas that are considered unclear or statistically invalid. |
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| 17. Key Words
Quality assurance, Percent within limits, SPECRISK |
18. Distribution Statement | |||
19. Security Classification Unclassified |
20. Security Classification Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 131 |
22. Price | |
| Form DOT F 1700.7 | Reproduction of completed page authorized |
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