Examination of Contractor Quality Control Plans for Highway Construction Projects

State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are currently facing a critical challenge of an increased demand for highway system construction work with limited available inspection resources of staff and funding. To address this issue, many DOTs require contractors to submit quality control (QC) plan and use contractor data for the acceptance decision. However, there is a lack of understanding how QC plans and data can be used for the agency acceptance decision, which may expose inspection processes and the highway pavement to the risk of quality shortfall. To address this gap, a comprehensive desk scan of quality assurance (QA) programs of the 50 DOTs was conducted to identify main components of QC plans. Seven case studies from Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia DOTs were conducted. Content of QA documents was analyzed to identify and evaluate requirements for QC plans and how to use QC plans to administer QA specifications for highway construction projects. The result shows that requirements for QC plans development and implementation vary from one DOT to another. QC plan implementation resources such as staff, testing laboratories, and equipment must be approved by the DOT. The findings from this study also indicated that accelerated schedule of alternative contracting delivery methods could impact completion of adequate QC processes. This study may help both researchers and practitioners better understand the process of developing and overseeing an effective QC that increases the value of inspection and enhances the quality of construction projects.