The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has announced it will implement a joint industry-agency training and certification program for construction materials lab technicians - perhaps the biggest change since the department moved to a Quality Control/Quality Assurance program in the 1990s.

The effort grew out of a construction materials "summit" held Sept. 10 in Sacramento where industry and agency representatives huddled over numerous issues that can impede the timely delivery of

Caltrans Deputy Director for Maintenance & Operations Steve Takigawa addresses the materials summit last year.

transportation improvement projects. Prompt sharing of materials test results and the skill-level of testers were two issues that were targeted for improvement, and two industry-agency task forces have been meeting since them to develop a series of process improvements.

Ensuring that all materials testers, in both the public and private sector, possess the same level of knowledge and skill in performing lab tests was deemed critical to reducing conflict and delay on construction projects. More than 20 other states have implemented a joint agency-industry training and certification program and have reported dramatic reductions in test variability and claims on construction projects.

In its announcement last week, State Materials Engineer Phil Stolarski said Joe Peterson, the retiring chief of the Caltrans Office of Roadway Materials Testing, was persuaded to stay on for a year on special assignment to implement the joint training and certification program, or JTCP.

The goals of the program, according to Stolarski's e-mail announcement, are to:

• Provide highly skilled, knowledgeable materials sampling and testing technicians
• Promote uniformity and consistency in testing
• Provide quality improvement
• Create a harmonious working atmosphere between public and private employees based upon trust, open communication, and equality of certification

The JTCP would offer training and certification in soil, aggregates,

Phil Stolarski

Hot Mix Asphalt and Portland cement concrete. Currently, Caltrans certifies its own employees as well as industry technicians, and how those activities are conducted vary across the state.

"Caltrans is looking forward to working with the various segments of the construction and consultant industries in developing a Joint Training Program for material testers," Stolarski told Asphalt Insider. "This is a unique opportunity in that collectively we will build a program from the ground up that will center on providing quality training, and true partnership relations, among materials testers."

Tracy Zubek, Quality Control Manager for CalAPA member DeSilva Gates Materials and a member of CalAPA's Technical Advisory Committee, said he was pleased with the department's announcement. Zubek saw first-hand the benefits of a joint program when he worked in Oregon, which implemented a similar program in 1995.

The CalAPA-supported Asphalt Pavement Alliance is out with a brief video highlighting the merits of "Perpetual Pavements," which are starting to catch on here in California. Click HERE to watch it. A cool info-graphic version (in PDF format) can be downloaded HERE.

Perpetual Pavements, otherwise known as long-life pavements, have been constructed in recent years in California on Interstate 80 between San Francisco and Sacramento, two stretches of Interstate 5 in the North State, and on the traffic-heavy 710 Freeway in Los Angeles County. Research on their performance has been done by the University of California Pavement Research Center. Last year the Asphalt Pavement Alliance presented Caltrans with a special "Pavement Pioneer" Award for deploying the innovative pavement design on California freeways. A story about the award, presented to Caltrans District 2 in Redding, is HERE.

Long-life asphalt pavements are designed to last 30 years or more with minimal maintenance. Some projects across the country are still going strong after 75 years in service. The lessons learned from the Long-life projects in California was featured in an in-depth article in CalAPA's official magazine, California Asphalt. You can view the issue HERE. Our web page of perpetual pavement resources is HERE.