Pavement distress data is important for Pavement Management System analysis. More and more transportation agencies are contracting-out their pavement data collection in order to reduce costs and improve pavement management decision making. It is mandatory that distress data quality is controlled by both agency and contractor. However, agencies have been experiencing problems with the quality of the data collected by contractors. Many agencies provide contractors with only a few specific data collection requirements and lack sufficient quality assurance. Simultaneously, contractors need to improve their quality control prior to, during, and after data collection. In addition, there is no effective interaction between agencies and contractors to establish a guideline and improve distress data quality. This paper presents findings from project experiences from the point of viewof agencies and contractors. It discusses not only quality assurance processes adopted by agencies, but also the practices of contractors to ensurequality control throughout a project. It summarizes what is missing in contracted data collection that requires the attention of both parties. A case study from the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is used to demonstrate the contracted data collection in three phases. Finally, a check list including quality assurance (QA) requirements of agencies and quality control (QC) requirements of contractors in terms of three project phase, Pre-collection, full production and final delivery, are provided to facilitate reaching a guideline on contracting pavement distress data collection. The findings and the check list can be valuable for the industry in building a standard guideline for distress data collection.
Samenvatting