Date of Award

1-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Mostafa A. Abo-Hashema, Chair

Second Advisor

Dr. Kamran Ahmed

Third Advisor

Eyad Masad,

Abstract

A good roads network has an important bearing on the economic growth of the country. Construction of quality roads, which is considered a primary objective of any highway agencies and contractors, requires concerted efforts on many fronts. Over the past several years, agencies have been working with the construction industry to implement Quality Assurance/Quality Control activities (QA/QC) in an effort to improve the quality of highway construction. They are used as a mean to describe the materials, workmanship, and other general requirements for the project that the highway agencies expect from the contractors. Good specifications should be easy to understand by involved parties. Ambiguous specifications can mislead the contractor and result in increased cost to either or both client and contractor because of claims that may occur. Since the primary function of a QA/QC system is to describe the quality level of the product desired, it follows that an effective specification is one where the contractors correctly interpret the desired quality level and consistently provide that level. Therefore, once QA/QC system is developed and used in the field, they should be monitored to verify their effectiveness and to determine when improvement is necessary, thereby making continuous quality improvement possible. Very few highway agencies currently monitor how well their specifications work. In this research, QA/QC system of Internal Roads and Infrastructure Division at the Al Ain Municipality (AAM) was selected as a case study for monitoring and improving the effectiveness of QA/QC system of road construction projects. To achieve these objectives, a good understanding of current QA/QC system being practiced by the AAM was felt necessary for which relevant evidence, information and sufficient data were collected. It was also considered that it would be foreseeing to know, analyze and compare the QA/QC system being followed by other authorities such as Road Department of Abu Dhabi Municipality (ADM), Roads and Transport Authority (RTA- previously known as Department of Roads, Dubai Municipality), and Dubai Central Laboratory (DCL), which is considered as an integral part of the RTA. Scheduled interviews were made with responsible persons of respective departments of the various organizations. References and data were obtained. Comparison and analysis were performed followed by recommendation for improvement of QA/QC system by developing short and long term measures.

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