Goulias, Schwartz Co-Principal Investigators for Highway Quality Study

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Dimitrios Goulias and Department Chair and Professor Charles Schwartz have joined forces for a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research study titled, “Improving the Core Elements of Highway Quality Assurance Programs.”

As co-principal investigators of the study, both Goulias and Schwartz will work with Weris Inc. to conduct research and develop technology transfer products for the Highway Quality Assurance Program at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. This research will help further the objectives put forth in FHWA’s Infrastructure Research and Technology Strategic Plan and Roadmap, which was developed to guide the agency’s research, development and technology (RD&T) activities.

The project itself consists of several RD&T activities to be carried out through a multiyear contract with a total research budget of up to $2 million. Additionally, the project features specific and well-defined objectives, such as:

Verification & Acceptance Testing of Pavement Materials

Guidelines for selecting optimum sample size, evaluating contractor and agency risks, and decision rules for validation of contractor test data;

Developing enhanced statistical analysis for comparing QC and Verification test data;

Dispute Resolution methods for highway materials testing

Pavement Smoothness

Verification and validation procedures for contractor QC tests used in the acceptance decision for Pavement Smoothness

Concrete Materials/Elements

Recommended procedures for inspection of precast and pre-stress concrete elements, and development of inspection guide;

Guidelines for recommended procedures for nondestructive testing of precast concrete elements

Asphalt Mixtures

Guidelines for Verification procedures for the effective HMA acceptance testing by optimizing the risk of future performance with the cost of the acceptance;

Guidelines for conducting data validation on results from HMA test procedures (e.g. Gmm and Gmb from AASHTO protocols) versus material properties computed from two or more test procedures (e.g., hot mix asphalt air voids, VTM from lab compacted samples and the field density % Gmm)

Webinars/Workshops

Development of webinars/workshops for improved highway materials quality assurance practices

Published March 12, 2014