Training and Certification of Construction Inspectors for Transportation Infrastructure (2023)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP WEB-ONLY DOCUMENT 337 Christopher J. Hedges, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Waseem Dekelbab, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs, and Manager, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Sid Mohan, Associate Program Manager, Implementation and Technology Transfer, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Ann M. Hartell, Senior Program Officer Dajaih Bias-Johnson, Program Associate Natalie Barnes, Director of Publications Heather DiAngelis, Associate Director of Publications Jennifer J. Weeks, Publishing Projects Manager NCHRP PROJECT 23-05 PANEL Field of Administration—Area of Agency Administration Darrin P. Beckett, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (retired), Frankfort, KY (Chair) Gary E. Angles, Ohio Department of Transportation, Columbus, OH Lori A. Copeland, Idaho Transportation Department, Garden City, ID Stephen T. Muench, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Randall S. Over, Columbus State Community College, Middleburg Heights, OH Shawn A. Smith, Maine Department of Transportation, Augusta, ME Sharon D. Taylor, North Dakota Department of Transportation, Bismarck, ND Lee E. Upkins, Jacobs, Mableton, GA Felix R. Gonzalez, FHWA Liaison Glenn Page, AASHTO Liaison

TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Research Problem ............................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Research Objectives ......................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research Framework ........................................................................................................ 8 1.4 Task Descriptions ........................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Report Format ................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2. RESEARCH APPROACH ................................................................................... 13 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Literature Review Methodology .................................................................................... 13 2.3 State-of-Practice Survey Methodology .......................................................................... 14 2.3.1 STA Survey ................................................................................................................ 15 2.3.2 Consultant Survey....................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Focus Group Methodology............................................................................................. 20 2.5 Interview Methodology .................................................................................................. 21 2.5.1 STA Interviews ........................................................................................................... 21 2.5.2 Consultant Interviews ................................................................................................. 22 2.6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 3. CORE COMPETENCIES.................................................................................... 24 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Typical Roles of Construction Inspectors ...................................................................... 25 3.3 Construction Inspectors’ Core Competencies ................................................................ 26 3.4 Core Competencies versus Different Inspection Position Levels .................................. 28 3.5 Understanding Important Levels of Core Competencies ............................................... 29 3.6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter 4. EDUCATION AND TRAINING ......................................................................... 34 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 34 4.2 Education Requirements and Training Methods ............................................................ 34 4.3 Construction Inspection Training Programs .................................................................. 36 4.4 Challenges in Training CIs ............................................................................................. 39 4.5 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 5. QUALIFICATIONS AND CERTIFICATION .................................................. 43

5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 43 5.2 Certification Organizations Used for CIs ....................................................................... 44 5.3 Recertification ................................................................................................................ 49 5.4 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 6. CAREER DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................... 52 6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 52 6.2 Recruitment of CIs ......................................................................................................... 52 6.3 Retention of CIs ............................................................................................................. 55 6.4 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 7. GUIDE DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING ....................................................... 58 7.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 58 7.2 Initial Draft of Guide ...................................................................................................... 58 7.3 Draft Contents of the Guide ........................................................................................... 59 7.4 Final Guide Structure and Layout .................................................................................. 60 7.5 Guide Testing ................................................................................................................. 62 7.6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 8. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 65 8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 65 8.2 Guide Development........................................................................................................ 65 8.3 Guide Implementation and Keys to Success .................................................................. 65 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 68 APPENDIX A – GLOSSARY OF TERMS .............................................................................. 70 APPENDIX B – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................ 72 APPENDIX C – STA SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE .............................................................. 94 APPENDIX D – CONSULTANT SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................ 107 APPENDIX E – STA INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE ..................................................... 118 APPENDIX F – CONSULTANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE ................................. 120 APPENDIX G – SUMMARY OF FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION .................................... 122 APPENDIX H – KEY FINDINGS FROM STA INTERVIEWS.......................................... 148 APPENDIX I – KEY FINDINGS FROM CONSULTANT INTERVIEWS ....................... 152 NCHRP Web-Only Document 337 contains the conduct of research report for NCHRP Project 23-05 and accompanies NCHRP Research Report 1027: Guide to Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Transportation Infrastructure Construction Inspectors. Readers can read or purchase NCHRP Research Report 1027 on the National Academies Press website (nap.nationalacademies.org).

LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1. Consultant Responses from Survey Questionnaire ..................................................... 18 Table 2-2. STA Interview Participant Information ....................................................................... 21 Table 2-3. Interview Participant Information ............................................................................... 22 Table 3-1. CI Core Competencies and Associated KSAs from the AASHTO TC3 Competency Matrix ............................................................................................................................................ 24 Table 3-2. Common Responsibilities CIs Perform for Transportation Infrastructure Projects .... 26 Table 3-3. Core Competencies for CIs to Possess ........................................................................ 26 Table 3-4. Importance of Competencies at Different Inspection Position Levels ........................ 28 Table 3-5. KSA Level of Importance: Academic Competencies ................................................. 29 Table 3-6. KSA Level of Importance: Technical Competencies .................................................. 30 Table 3-7. KSA Level of Importance: Personal Effectiveness Competencies ............................. 31 Table 3-8. KSA Level of Importance: Workplace Competencies ................................................ 31 Table 3-9. Top 5 Construction Inspector Competencies by Respondent Category ...................... 31 Table 3-10. Top 5 Construction Inspector Competencies by CI Level ........................................ 32 Table 5-1. Sample of Aggregate Testing Standards Adopted by STAs Compared to ACI Testing ....................................................................................................................................................... 44 Table 5-2. List of Third-Party Certification and Training Organizations for CIs ........................ 45 Table 7-1. Initially Proposed Content of the CI Guide ................................................................. 60 Table 7-2. Proposed Vetting Session Agenda ............................................................................... 63 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1. Research framework..................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2-1. Example of the resources used to collect relevant CI literature ................................. 14 Figure 2-2. Map showing STAs that responded to the survey ...................................................... 15 Figure 2-3. STA survey respondents’ group/section they work in (n =46) .................................. 16 Figure 2-4. Number of years’ experience respondents have related to construction inspection .. 16 Figure 2-5. Primary roles of in-house construction inspectors ..................................................... 17 Figure 2-6. Criteria used to determine an in-house construction inspector's position .................. 17 Figure 2-7. Consultant survey respondents’ experience with transportation construction inspections (n = 30) ....................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 2-8. Construction Inspection services provided by consultant firms ................................ 19 Figure 2-9. Consultant firms’ experience in construction inspection ........................................... 20 Figure 3-1. KSAs for construction inspection .............................................................................. 25 Figure 4-1. Education requirements for CI position levels ........................................................... 34 Figure 4-2. Training methods used by STAs ................................................................................ 36 Figure 4-3. Training program used by STAs and consultants for CIs .......................................... 37 Figure 4-4. Frequency of use for various CI training modalities .................................................. 38 Figure 4-5. Percentage of STAs training CIs for the use of technologies for inspections ............ 39 Figure 4-6. Challenges experienced with training of CIs ............................................................. 40 Figure 5-1. Use of material, supplier, or contractor certifications for acceptance of work .......... 45 Figure 5-2. Certification organizations used for CIs .................................................................... 46 Figure 5-3. Regional/national certification programs– The STA perspective .............................. 47 Figure 5-4. Regional/national certification programs- Consultants’ perspective ......................... 48 Figure 5-5. Comparison of CI certification organizations used by STAs ..................................... 49 Figure 5-6. Re-certification requirements ..................................................................................... 50

Figure 6-1. Factors influencing the recruitment of CIs................................................................. 53 Figure 6-2. Turnover rate of CIs at STAs across AASHTO regions ............................................ 55 Figure 6-3. Factors influencing the retention of CIs ..................................................................... 56 Figure 7-1. Initial CI Guide Framework ....................................................................................... 59 Figure 7-2. Construction Inspector Development Flowchart ....................................................... 61 Figure 8-1. Implementation pathways for construction inspector development........................... 66