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Quality - Assurance - and - Control - in - The - NOT DEVELOPMENT COUNTRIES
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Salman Azhar
Assistant Professor,McWhorter School of Building Science, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA
Arshad Mahmood
Engineer,DESCON-CGGC(JV), Lahore,Punkab, Pakistan
Abstract
Quality is one of the critical factors in the success of construction projects. Quality of construction
projects, as well as project success, can be regarded as the fulfillment of expectations (i.e. the satisfaction)
of the project participants. The construction industry in Pakistan has been struggling with quality issues
for many years. The construction costs can be significantly reduced if the construction industry embraces
the concept of quality assurance and control that has been used with great success by service and
manufacturing industries in Pakistan. However, unlike manufacturing and service industries, where a
standard product is regularly produced, most products of the construction industry are one-offs, specially
designed for a specific purpose. Hence, attainment of a quality level is difficult both to specify and to
monitor. In this paper, a case study of the quality assurance and control during the execution of Taunsa
Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernization Project contract packages ICB-01 (Sub-weir,
downstream floor of barrage, instrumentation) has been presented. The Taunsa Barrage Project has been
considered as a success story in the construction of infrastructure development projects in developing
countries. The major part of the civil works of the Taunsa Barrage Project has been completed. This paper
is focused on the quality assurance and control using the concept of quality, quality management system
(QMS) and quality management system standards in the civil construction works.
Keywords
Quality, Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Civil Works, Infrastructure Projects
1. Introduction
Quality is a desirable characteristic by all stakeholders in construction. The quality assurance (QA) is a
set of activities whose purpose is to demonstrate that an entity meets all quality requirements (ISO, 2007).
QA activities are carried out in construction projects to inspire the confidence of stakeholders in meeting
the quality requirements. QA provide the stakeholder with adequate confidence that a structure,
component, material or system meets pre-stated quality standards and will perform satisfactory during its
entire service life. Quality control (QC) is the set of activities or techniques whose purpose is to ensure
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that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve QC, processes are monitored and
performance problems are solved (ISO, 2007).
Quality Control (QC) is concerned with actual measurement, testing or supervision of manufacturers’
own final product control, either by inspection of each unit or by sample testing. Originally a
manufacturing-industry concern, quality is now acknowledged to be a key issue for the construction
sector whose clients increasingly demand quality certification (Chung, 2007). The objective of
construction QA/QC is to independently assure that the activities of a specific project are being performed
in accordance with all contractual specifications, codes and standards or government regulations. The
QA/QC is verified through checks audits, inspections and witnessing. These audit services are carried out
completely independently of the individual contractors, materials suppliers, manufacturer or sub
contractor as well as the purchaser or final user. Quality Assurance (QA) provides the facility owner with
adequate confidence that a structure, component, material or system meets pre-stated quality standards
and will perform satisfactory during service. QA/QC inspections can be applied to all materials,
structures, components or systems utilized in the construction and operation of complex industrial plants
including nuclear power stations. This service is being provided both on the construction site and at the
facilities of the manufacturers involved. The choice of operations to be performed depends on the
requirements of the assignment.
Project quality management must address both the management of the project and the product of the
project. Failure to meet quality requirements in either dimension can have serious consequences for any
or all the project stakeholders (PMI, 2000). The quality conscious construction stakeholders believe that
the essence of true QA/QC is in constant inspection along with project quality teams having a deep
knowledge of the QA/QC procedures. The verifications and reminders of quality in construction
stakeholders are consistently communicated from upper management to superintendents. In order to
accomplish the expectations from subcontractors, the main contractors must inspect their work on a
regular and consistent basis, with corrections made well before punch list reviews.
A case study of the quality assurance and control during Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and
Modernization Project, the oldest headwork of Southern Punjab, Pakistan has been discussed in this
paper. Taunsa Barrage (as shown in Figure 1) was originally constructed in a period of five years from
1953 to 1958 over the Indus River in the Southwest part of Punjab in Kot Addu Tehsil of Muzaffargarh
District. Soon after it's commissioning, it experienced multiple engineering problems, which aggravated
with the passage of time. Taunsa Barrage facilitates the flow of irrigation water from the Indus River in
three major canals, Muzafar Garh Canal (8,300 cusecs), Dera Ghazi Khan Canal (89,000 cusecs) and
Taunsa Panjnad (T-P) Link Canal (12,000 cusecs) supplying some six million acre feet of irrigation water
to cultivated lands in districts of Muzafagarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur during Rabi
and Kharif agricultural seasons. The purpose of this rehabilitation project is to prevent the breaking down
of the dilapidated Taunsa Barrage. The project comprises of the restoration of the barrage, floodgates and
its incidental facilities in order to guarantee a water resource to the peripheral area. Samples of surface
water as well as ground water have been collected, tested and analyzed for physical, biological and
chemical elements in order to determine its suitability for aquatic flora and fauna, irrigation purposes as
well as human consumption.
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Figure 1: Taunsa Barrage
It is important to note that all the barrages operating in Punjab have depreciated primarily due to age. To
adequately address this issue, Government of Punjab has successfully negotiated a loan from the World
Bank towards the cost of rehabilitation and modernization of Punjab barrages (Descon News, 2005). Out
of the entire construction cost of US$150 million, the World Bank is financing US$123 million (approved
in October 2004). Also, the Government of Japan is contributing a grant aid of 5,165 million yen, for the
detailed design of floodgates and these have been executed by JICA. The client of the project is
Government of Punjab through Project Monitoring Organization (PMO) of Irrigation and Power
Department. The design and supervision consultants of the project are Punjab Barrages Consultants (A
Joint Venture of National Drainage Consultants (NDC), National Engineering Services of Pakistan
(NESPAK) and Atkins-UK). The contractors for the ICB-01 package are joint venture between Descon
Engineering Limited and China Gezhauba Water and Power Group Company (CGGC). The Contractors
for ICB-01 package is M/s CCC of China. All the major contractors and consultants of the project are ISO
certified organizations.
According to Hendrickson (1999), the quality requirements should be clear and verifiable, so that all
parties in the project can understand them for conformance. In Taunsa barrage project, the Engineers’
Quality Assurance Program (EQAP) in compliance with ISO 9000/2000 quality management system
(QMS) has been used. The references for the quality system are as follows:
• General conditions of contract part 1 (FIDIC) clause 36 & 37 about materials, plant and
workmanship.
• SP-9 Approval of materials and equipment (Source approval and approval on site).
• SP-10 Contractor’s quality assurance plan.
The on and off site QA/QC activities included in the Taunsa barrage rehabilitation and modernization
project are listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Taunsa Barrage Rehabilitation and Modernization Project Quality Management System
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Sr. Description Activity
1 Assistance in defining the QA program which meets the full intent of all
regulatory requirements. It includes aspects of organization, personnel,
inspection plans and program, and procedures. This is summarized in QA
manual.
2 Review of the design, specifications, drawings and specified standards to assure
compliance to the applicable regulatory requirements.
3 Performance of pre-award or pre-qualification surveys including a complete
Off Site QA/QC Tasks
The details of the quality management system of Taunsa barrage rehabilitation and modernization project
are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Taunsa Barrage Rehabilitation and Modernization Project Quality Management System)
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The project quality management system (QMS) was very comprehensively formulated. However, these
PQMS is not addressing any limits or margins of acceptability in case of onsite and offsite Q.A/Q.C tasks.
The contractor of the project especially remained in excessive pressure due to the unlimited exercise of
the PQMS implementation on the project by Client and Consultant. It has been observed in the project
that excessive strictness in the implementation of the quality sometimes originate various crucial technical
constraints, which seriously affect the scope, schedule and budget. It has also been depicted from the
project case study that in case of excessive experimentation related to the quality in the projects (when the
technical quality related background of the stakeholders is also limited), number of times the project
stakeholders were unable to get any favorable solution. The documentation controlling based on the
project PQMS comprise of following:
Changes in construction processes
Material procurement
Field testing and inspection
Final check out of facility
The process and implementation of the Q.A/Q.C audit procedures always remain difficult to apply in the
developing countries infrastructure projects. The same difficulties have been observed in the subject
project. These difficulties has been arising various questions and doubts in the direction, communication,
integration and outcomes of the quality management system of the project. Thus the development of an
integrated project oriented quality management system for the project is necessary for Client and
important from the ISO9000:2000 perspective. So in the subject project after the implementation
shortcomings of PQMS, an advance version of the PQMS in the form of project oriented quality
management system has been established. This system has provided support and removes the
discrepancies in the quality consequences. The representation procedure of the system is shown below in
Figure 3.
Client
Consultant
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The various project site activities related to QA/QC are shown in Figure 4.
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2.1 Material Sources Approval
The major scope of work in the project includes the reinforced cement concrete (RCC), steel sheet piles
and earthwork. Thus the approved sources in-context with quality management system have been required
for steel, cement, fine aggregates, coarse aggregates, slag, additives, water stops, and steel sheet piles.
The quality management standards adopted for the approval of the sources of material are listed in Table
2. The references for the quality management standards of materials have been mainly adopted from the
American Standards for the Testing of Materials (ASTM, 2007). The Pakistan standards & quality control
authority (PQSA, 2007) guidelines for the selection of material quality and sources have also been
incorporated wherever necessary in this project.
Table 2: Taunsa Barrage Rehabilitation and Modernization Project Materials with Quality
Management Standards, Tests and Approved Sources
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The quality control has been achieved through assurance of the specifications, QC manual, monitoring,
inspection, testing, measuring testing equipments, testing, test results, non-conformance reports &
actions, QC records and internal quality audits.
The testing frequency for the major construction materials is listed in Tables 3(a)-(g).
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Table 3(d): Testing Frequency for Fine Aggregates
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Table 3(g): Testing Frequency for Admixtures
A comparison of the number of laboratory and field tests performed and required at the project site is
shown in Table 4.
Table 4: The Abstract of Quality Control Activities for the Taunsa Barrage Emergency
Rehabilitation and Modernization Project (MPR, 2007)
3. Concluding Remarks
In construction project due to the involvement of various stakeholders in quality control and assurance,
issues of quality control arise in virtually all the functional areas of construction activities. Within the
organizational structure of the stakeholders in the Taunsa Barrage construction project, a limited number
of quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) personnel were responsible for an increasingly large
workload involving many more complex practices than found in traditional construction. To ensure the
continued quality of rehabilitation of the barrage facilities, several approaches are being considered,
including automation. The computer-aided technology in particular shows great promise in creating tools
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to assist QA/QC elements. Past development of QA/QC in Pakistan has shown that the stakeholders must
become involved early in the process to ensure suitable performance. However, in developing some
QA/QC systems, the stakeholder is not known and the system cannot be tailored for a particular level of
domain knowledge. When this situation occurs, it is necessary to provide flexibility in the system to
handle users with differing levels of knowledge about the domain. Incorporating this flexibility into a
computer module is a major problem in current QA/QC development and different approaches have been
tried to deal with the problem.
The experience of quality control and assurance during the construction of Taunsa barrage can lead to
following observations:
• The performance specifications for construction operations specifying the required construction
process and specifying the required quality of finished facility remained absent in term of
application and implementation in the project.
• The statistical sampling methods (variable and attributes) commonly used for the quality control
has not been used in the project.
• Accurate and useful information collection during construction is an important part of
maintaining quality performance.
• The capability of the contractors after the pre-qualification has been evaluated and PQMS are
than developed for a specific project.
• In developing countries like Pakistan the quality awareness and consciousness limits is required
to be communicated among the stakeholders through seminars, conferences, workshops etc.
• As in Pakistan, the PQMS as per ISO for the construction industry is relatively new in
implementation and adaptation, thus project oriented PQMS are prerequisite before the
commencement of the actual construction particularly on mega projects.
4. References
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PMI, (2000). “A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge – PMBOK”, Project Management
Institute, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA, USA.
PSQCA, (2007). Pakistan standards & quality control authority”. http://www.psqca.com.pk/ ,12/27/07.
PAK, (2008). Pakistan steel mills Corporation private limited, http://www.paksteel.com, 01/15/08.
SIKA Industry, (2007). SIKA industry magazine No. 3, http://www.sika.com/industry.htm ,12/27/07.
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