JUNE 2014 MEETING
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 (2.0 PDH

LOCATION:
Hess Club
5430 Westheimer
Houston, Texas 77056
713-627-2283
(Business casual dress code required)

TECHNICAL PROGRAM

Asphalt Inspection and Acceptance Testing

Speaker: Danny Gierhart, P.E. Asphalt Institute, P.E., 2696 Research Park Drive, Lexington, KY 40511-8480

Danny Gierhart, P.E., has been the Asphalt Institute’s Southeastern Regional Engineer since 2009, primarily serving the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  He earned his Civil Engineering degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1985, and has been a registered professional engineer since 1990.  He has had a diverse career, working in industry, agency, and academia.  His 20 years with the Oklahoma DOT included three years roadway inspection and five years in research and development.  For most of his ODOT career, he held the position of Bituminous Engineer, managing both the liquid asphalt and asphalt mix laboratories, plus writing all asphalt-related specifications for the agency.  He spent four years in industry as Materials Engineer for Broce Construction Company, managing all asphalt mix design, QC/QA, and materials cost estimating for the company in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico.  He served the College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma as an adjunct instructor from 1999 to 2010, teaching CE 5303, “Asphalt Materials and Mix Design.”

PRESENTATION SUMMARY

To an audience of about 40, Mr. Gierhart reviewed the responsibilities of a construction inspector on an asphalt project, as well as considerations for specifying acceptance tests and understanding what they mean for the project. Mr. Gierhart stressed that quality control components are all links in a chain meaning each step in the process is equally important.

An asphalt inspector represents the owner’s interest in several ways, including keeping a daily construction diary, monitoring ambient and asphalt mix temperatures, tracking tonnage and checking yield, monitoring compaction, observing materials and workmanship, and making sure that best practices are being used.

There are many ways to specify how materials will be managed and accepted, some of which can simply be done visually, while others utilize physical testing.  A critical component in any program is obtaining representative test samples.  The details of how materials will be sampled, tested, and reported should be documented in a quality control plan.  Finally, users need to understand the purpose of certain asphalt tests, how to evaluate the test results, and what failing test results could mean for the pavement longevity.

To read summaries of previous FPA presentations by Danny Gierhart, P.E. please click:

July, 2013 - Asphalt Materials, Asphalt Mix Design and Asphalt Plants