105.01 Quality and Scope of Supply

2012 STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS FOR CONSTRUCTION - SECTION 105

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All materials incorporated into the project must be tested by MDOT, certified by the manufacturer as meeting the applicable specifications, selected from the Qualified Products Lists or visually inspected at the project site. MDOT publishes several manuals which provide guidance on materials sampling, testing and acceptance. Revisions are published annually and distributed through the MDOT Publications Office. Unless otherwise indicated in the proposal, individual projects are governed by the edition in use at the time the project is advertised. Questions regarding materials sampling, testing and acceptance can be referred to the Region materials staff, or to the Construction and Technology Support Area staff.

Materials to be incorporated into the work may be inspected and tested any time and any place during their preparation, storage and use regardless of previous testing or manufacturer certifications. This applies to materials such as HMA and concrete mixtures furnished under quality control/quality assurance specifications, as well as materials supplied under standard specifications.

In response to Public Act (PA) 178 of 2014, MDOT implemented the Special Provision for Industrial By-Products and Beneficial Re-Use (12SP- 900A-01). The special provision is intended to prevent the use of unfamiliar materials on projects until MDOT has the opportunity to perform appropriate testing for suitability and environmental compliance. All questions and inquiries directed to construction staff regarding the use of any of the materials included in the public act are to be evaluated as follows:

1. If the material is “covered elsewhere in the contract” as stated in the special provision, the other contract provisions will apply. One example of this coverage is the use of crushed concrete which is not prohibited by the beneficial re-use special provision; however, all other contract provisions regarding crushed concrete apply such as the Special Provision for Crushed Concrete Near Water (12SP902(C)).
2. If the material is not referenced elsewhere in the contract, the material is not to be approved for use unless approved by Construction Field Services. Requests of this nature are to be coordinated and discussed with Construction Field Services so appropriate material testing and evaluation can be performed. One example of these materials is pulp from paper mills.

The inspector should check the storage areas and stockpiles to ensure that materials are being transported, handled and stored in a manner which will preserve their quality. If necessary, the Contractor is required to provide access to stored material so that a thorough inspection may be made. The basis of acceptance, testing frequency and documentation requirements are specified in the following guidance documents.

Publication	Description
Aggregate Source Inventory	Lists all sources of aggregate that have supplied to in-state projects and driving directions to get to the pits.
Manual For the Certification of HMA Plants	Establishes standards for certification of HMA plants.
HMA QC/QA Procedures Field Manual of Field Testing	Describes Quality Control and Quality Assurance testing that is to be performed on HMA projects.
Density Control Handbook	Describes all tests that MDOT uses for density control testing.
Field Manual of Soil Engineering	Details department procedures for subsurface explorations, soils testing and analysis and geotechnical design.
Materials Quality Assurance Procedures	Guidance document for personnel associated with sampling, testing and inspection of materials used in MDOT and federal aid secondary projects.
Materials Source Guide	Lists suppliers authorized to certify materials, or to maintain tested stock of materials. Also contains the Qualified Products List of materials that have been evaluated and approved for use on MDOT projects.
Michigan Test Methods	Includes the procedures used by MDOT in testing certain materials, equipment or operations. Supplements test methods published by ASTM or AASHTO.
Procedures for Aggregate Inspection	Procedures for qualifying aggregates for HMA and concrete construction.

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