Project Quality Assurance Organization Selection for Highway Design and Construction Projects

The assignment of project quality roles and responsibilities in the highway industry makes up a project quality assurance organization (QAO). Historically, all project quality roles and responsibilities have been assigned to the state highway agency (SHA), an accepted and well-understood practice in the industry. However, increasing use of alternative project delivery methods and reductions in SHA staffing are having an impact on traditional QAO practices. In response, SHAs are increasingly selecting QAOs in an informal manner because of time constraints, limited staff knowledge and experience, and a lack of guidance from the research community. Most highway quality research focuses on inspections, observations, corporate quality, warranties, and materials testing, with a resulting gap in the research about shifts in roles and responsibilities in project QAOs. This research attempts to bridge this gap by investigating and identifying fundamental QAOs in the industry, identifying factors that influence the selection of QAOs, exploring relationships between QAOs and selection factors, and presenting a systematic process to assist SHAs in selecting QAOs. The process presented in this paper provides a consistent, efficient, justifiable, and defensible approach for selecting project QAOs. The QAO selection process also provides SHAs with opportunities for identifying, discussing, and understanding potential impacts of different QAOs on different projects.