Why the United States needs NACLA Recognition of Accreditation Bodies Federal Highway Administration’s Perspective Mike Rafalowski Materials Engineer Office of Pavement Technology Federal Highway Administration

Background

WHY Test?

Background 42 Billion Dollar annual program 50 percent of the construction funds go to the purchase of materials

Background Nearly 300 tests in soils, aggregate, asphalt, and concrete Major user of Hot Mix Asphalt Minor user of Portland Cement Concrete Multiple other manufactured materials (Steel, electrical, paint, sewers, and etc)

Major specifiers of Infrastructure Federal Highway Administration Army Corp of Engineers Bureau of Reclamation Federal Aviation Administration State Department of Transportation Cities and local government Building owners

Types of Laboratory Qualification ISO AASHTO R-18 Owner requirements NONE

Our Need for Comparable Accreditation Program Regulatory option for approving comparable Accreditation Bodies Inquiries by Accreditation Bodies Interest by laboratories in reducing number of duplicative audits

Our Need for Comparable Accreditation Program Why NACLA? NACLA’s mission is to coordinate and evaluate accreditation programs in the US Several accreditation programs covering construction materials in the US Most parties interested in construction materials are members of NACLA

Criteria for Comparable Accreditation Program NACLA - Technical Requirements Committee Subcommittee on Construction Representatives of : FHWA, FAA, COE, USBR, NIST, AASHTO, AAP, A2LA, NVLAP, IAS, ACIL First meeting May 13, 2001 Technical Requirements for Construction Testing, NISTIR 7012, published June 2003