Fundamental Project Quality Assurance Organizations in Highway Design and Construction

Abstract

Alternative project delivery methods and reductions in state highway agency staffing are changing project quality assurance organizations (QAO) or the assignment of project quality management roles and responsibilities in the industry. Although fundamental quality roles and responsibilities remain the same, the assignment of these roles and responsibilities is shifting away from agencies and is doing so in an ad hoc manner because of project time constraints and lack of research and guidance on the topic. Most research that pertains to highway project quality has focused on quality control levels, material specifications, inspections, and observations; there is a gap in the research about overall project quality organizations. This paper addresses that gap by providing a better understanding of highway project QAOs and guidance about assignments of quality management roles and responsibilities. The research identified five fundamental highway project QAOs through a national survey of industry, a literature review, and an analysis of the content of documents from 66 projects. The resulting five fundamental highway project QAOs are Deterministic, Assurance, Variable, Oversight, and Acceptance.