On August 21st of this year, Caltrans Division of Construction Chief Ramon Hopkins issued this Construction Procedure Directive (CPD) memorandum:
REMOVING CT 342 ACCEPTANCE REQUIREMENT FOR CONCRETE PAVEMENT
This directive provides information to California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) resident engineers about upcoming revisions to Section 40, “Concrete Pavement”; Section 41, “Existing Concrete Pavement,” and Section 42, ” Groove and Grind Concrete,” of the Standard Specifications. Revisions to these sections will be published in October 2024.
Sections 40, 41, and 42 currently require California Test (CT) 342, “Method of Test for Surface Skid Resistance with the California Portable Skid Tester,” for acceptance. Specification language revisions have been adopted by stakeholders, which include the Caltrans Pavement Program, Federal Highway Administration, and the Division of Construction, to remove CT 342 from Sections 40, 41, and 42 when the Standard Specifications are published in October 2024. Removing the skid test from these sections will reduce Caltrans labor and resources used to conduct this test. Requiring the skid test for acceptance in Sections 40, 41, and 42 is redundant because the surface texture of concrete pavements is prescriptive in Section 40-1.03H(3), “Final Finishing,” of the Standard Specifications.
With this directive, contractors have the option to request use of the revised specifications to remove the CT 342 acceptance requirement in Sections 40, 41, and 42 for ongoing projects. Contractors may do this by submitting a no-cost change order request to the resident engineer. Attached to this directive are a sample change order memorandum, sample change order, and the revised specifications for Sections 40, 41, and 42. This directive serves as delegation of authority from the Division of Construction for change order approval, except when change order language is altered.
On the long road to changing a Caltrans concrete pavement specification, SWCPA Executive Director Charles Stuart has maintained a steady course to enact improvements. Over the course of several years working with the Caltrans Pavement and Materials Partnering Committee (PMPC), he successfully championed many improvement to the Standards including the use of cylinder testing for acceptance, maturity testing, dowel basket tie wire cutting, CRCP design improvements, and removal of the 10-Day Wait Requirement for Concrete Pavement Opening that was adopted in April 2020.
More recently, on March 31, 2022, Stuart addressed the Caltrans QA (acceptance) requirement for Skid Resistance by reaching out to the Executive Directors at all of the other American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) chapters for guidance from other states.
To add to the long list of reasons to remove the outdated CT 342 from the acceptance requirements, Stuart received extensive feedback from the heads of several allied groups, including Dr. Andrew Johnson and Greg Dean of the Southeast Cement Promotion Association in Georgia, Bill Cuerdon of the New York State Chapter of the ACPA, and Alan Meadors from the Oklahoma/Arkansas Chapter of the ACPA, and Larry Scofield from the International Grooving and Grinding Assoviation (IGGA). They provided insight and perspectives on how other state Departments of Transportation and their associations have dealt with the issues of Skid Resistance Testing and specifying Skid Numbers for concrete pavement.
Ultimately, it was accepted that Caltrans already specifies concrete texture in great detail through the tining, and diamond grinding specifications. Stuart brought this information to the PMPC and advocated for the removal of what has become an unnecessary requirement. Then on August 21st, Stuart’s three-and-one-half-year drive for this change finally succeeded. Caltrans enacted CPD 24-7 “Removing CT 342 Acceptance Requirement for Concrete Pavement.” The update will soon be published in the 2024 Standard Specifications.