Quantifying the Effectiveness of State Quality Assurance Programs

completed

State highway administrations do not currently have an objective way to determine how well their quality assurance programs and their specifications are working. A procedure has been developed to assist State highway administrations and Federal Highway Administration Divisions in evaluating the effectiveness of construction quality assurance programs and specifications. The procedure (see "Procedure for Monitoring and Improving the Effectiveness of QA Specifications" in Transportation Research Record 1813) calls for data analysis of the State's construction quality database to determine whether what the State wants (in terms of construction quality) is actually being specified by the State and delivered by the contractor. The procedure can be used to quantify the effectiveness of a quality assurance program, while at the same time identifying problem areas so they can be corrected. It also has the potential for use as a benchmarking tool for State highway agencies. The procedure was used to analyze the Florida Department of Transportation's Construction Quality Reporting (CQR) database, and make recommendations to that State. This is an activity that calls for analyzing various States' databases, making recommendations for quality assurance program improvements, and promoting good database development and analysis.