CP Tech Center Publishes Valuable New QC Tool

The National Concrete Pavement Technology Center at Iowa State University, more succinctly known as the CP Tech Center, has recently published a new guide that can be used as a Quality Control (QC) tool “at the batch plant, behind the paver, and at other locations on the job.”

The guide, Quality Control for Concrete Paving: A Tool for Agency and Industry, can be viewed or downloaded here: https://intrans.iastate.edu/app/uploads/2021/12/QC_for_concrete_paving.pdf

The authors are Tara L. Cavalline, Ph.D., P.E., UNC at Charlotte; Gary J. Fick, The Transtec Group, Inc.; and Al Innis, Consultant.

Tara Cavalline earned her Doctorate at UNC in Infrastructure and Environmental Systems, and her Masters at Penn State in Civil Engineering. Cavalline’s research includes PLC and cementitious materials, sustainable construction materials, and quality assurance for concrete construction. She has been the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator in 36 major concrete projects over the past 15 years.

“When writing this guide, our team’s goal was to provide content useful to all stakeholders in the concrete paving process – agencies, contractors, engineers, and material suppliers to ensure quality pavements are constructed,” Cavalline explained. “The document presents the means for highway contractors to develop a comprehensive QC plan, or to enhance the QC approaches they’re currently using.

“At the same time, this document will help state agency personnel become familiar with the components and approaches that comprise a comprehensive QC plan for concrete paving projects, how such a plan benefits an agency, and ways to appropriately incorporate QC requirements into specifications and acceptance.”

With more than three decades working in the paving industry, Gary Fick was awarded the ACPA Martin J. Knutson Award for Technical Achievement last year. Fick, a project manager for The Transtec Group, has authored four previous guides for the CP Tech Center, and has recently served as Principal Investigator for FHWA’s “Technical Support for Real-Time Smoothness Measuring Technologies” project.

Who Can Benefit from Quality Control for Concrete Paving?

If you’re a contractor, this new Quality Control guide will assist you in improving your existing QC programs. If you have yet to formalize a project-by-project QC program, consider this guide a template with well-detailed tools, processes, and procedures that are written to meet most agency requirements.

If you work at an agency, Quality Control for Concrete Paving will familiarize you and your staff with the components of a comprehensive QC plan for concrete paving projects, which is always beneficial. This guide is something that all new Resident Engineers should print out, roll up, and keep in their back pockets to read during downtime on site, leaning against a paver.

Good QC is a smart investment. It ensures efficient planning and productive crew work, which means increased profit. The end result will be even-more-dependable, long-life concrete pavement, which should register positively with everyone at Caltrans, NDOT, and all of the other agencies that are building concrete highways in the West today.

Plan to digest this very comprehensive QC guide in bite-sized pieces. It is 170 pages long and goes into great depth covering QC Fundamentals, QC For Materials Suppliers, Performance-Engineered Concrete Mixtures, QC for Concrete Pavement Construction, and Tools for QC.

If 170 pages sounds too daunting, skip to the appendices to start. They provide helpful bulleted guides that you can readily and easily apply to any project that you’re planning, engineering, or currently building. Appendix A starts on page 103.

Either way, definitely download or print Quality Control for Concrete Paving: A Tool for Agency and Industry. Your QC investment with this guide will pay off in spades.