Sources: Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago; American Institute of Steel Construction, Chicago

A resolution passed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures at the recent 2009 AASHTO annual meeting recognizes PCI, AISC and related groups’ certification of personnel, production, and other quality processes related to fabricated structural bridge components. PCI and AISC have jointly prepared a companion “Quality Systems White Paper” detailing essential resolution requirements.

“This clearly throws AASHTO’s weight behind certification programs established by the national technical institutes,” affirms PCI President James Toscas. “It recognizes that a national technical institute is uniquely qualified to develop and deliver certification programs in its specific industry.”

Adds National Steel Bridge Alliance Executive Director Roger Ferch, “The Subcommittee understands that a program under the auspices of a national technical institute best assures state-of-the-art quality certification. Furthermore, it can be uniformly applied in all jurisdictions, which leads to an economy of scale that benefits both the industry and the owner.”

Both organizations concur that an effective certification program must be part of a complete quality system with broad industry involvement, well-established collaborative relationships, and forums for information exchange. Technical institutes, the resolution asserts, “develop consensus standards for their industries; sponsor relevant research; draw upon and energize established technical committees; publish technical training, design, and standards manuals; have staff positions held by engineers and subject experts; and, qualify and monitor their third-party independent auditors who are trained to provide critical assessment and bring consistency to their work.”