Research Article Transportation Research Record 1–10 Ó National Academy of Sciences: Transportation Research Board 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0361198119844748 journals.sagepub.com/home/trr Regionalizing the Quality Assurance Processes in New England Area for Pre-Stressed and Precast Concrete Elements used in Highway Construction Rasool Nemati 1 , Eshan V. Dave 1 , Jo E. Sias 1 , and Alan D. Perkins 2 Abstract The use of quality assurance (QA) processes in highway infrastructure is critical to ensure durable, safe, and economical transportation operations. These processes ensure the desired level of quality is maintained throughout manufacturing. Precast and pre-stressed concrete elements are commonly used in highway construction projects, including many bridge ele- ments and drainage components. Owing to their widespread usage, it is necessary to have a comprehensive QA process that includes plant certification, manufacturer’s process and quality control, and agency inspection and acceptance testing. In many cases, one manufacturing plant will serve a region, fabricating a variety of elements for many state departments of transporta- tion (DOTs). Since different state DOTs may have different QA processes in their specifications, the plants need to adjust the fabrication process with respect to these criteria, which results in higher expenses and lower productivity. Furthermore, each agency will need to provide inspection and acceptance testing resources at a fabricator’s location. This study reviews and evaluates the current QA processes for precast and pre-stressed concrete elements used in highway construction in the New England region. Based on a review of current practices, a set of unified QA process recommendations have been devel- oped. This will result in significant financial savings by reducing the number of QA inspectors if the manufacturers for different construction projects around the region follow a unified procedure for maintaining and evaluating the quality of their prod- ucts. Recommendations for plant/producer prequalification, pre-placement, during placement, and post-placement quality control and agency inspection practices have been developed and are presented. Quality assurance (QA) comprises all of the comprehen- sive and systematic planned processes during a manufac- turing procedure that result in a desired level of the product quality. In designing a QA system, not only should the product quality be considered, but also the economic aspects of the manufacturing procedure should be taken into account in an efficient way (1). The QA procedure is designed to decrease the inconsistency and variation of the inspection processes. Under federal requirements, each department of transportation (DOT) is required to develop and implement a QA program to ensure that the materials and workmanship in highway construction projects conform to the approved plans and specifications. Such a QA program requires the DOTs to maintain qualified staff and a central laboratory to administer the program. The QA program consists of six major components: (i) verification sampling and testing; (ii) quality control (QC) sampling and testing; (iii)inde- pendent assurance (IA) testing and sampling; (iv) techni- cian qualification; (v) accreditation and qualification of testing facilities; and (vi) dispute resolution. Typically, the program also has formats and templates for materi- als certification (2). A national review conducted by the Federal Highway Administration indicated that the QA of precast concrete elements (PCE) is substantially different among different state highway agencies. The review indicated that amongst the nine investigated states, only one of them exhibited effective acceptance processes and the rest of the states need substantial improvement (3). The use of QA systems in highway infrastructure is critical to ensure durable, safe, and economical transpor- tation operations. The main activities required by the 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 2 Consultant, Deerfield, NH Corresponding Author: Address correspondence to Eshan V. Dave: eshan.dave@unh.edu