True/False Questions
1. Quality assurance is defined only as those planned and systematic actions taken
by the agency to provide confidence that a product or facility will perform
satisfactorily in service.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
2. A quality assurance program serves as a skeleton or overall framework necessary
for construction quality assurance implementation.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
3. Joint development and review of quality assurance specifications should include
agency and industry personnel (engineers, inspectors, technicians) who are
directly responsible for construction.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
4. The same six core elements required for a design-bid-build construction QA
program are also required for design-build construction QA programs.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
5. Quality control activities include only sampling and testing. Visual inspection is
relegated to the acceptance inspector.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
6. Quality control plans are project-specific documents whose function is to address
specific production facility and field placement processes for individual categories
of work on a construction project.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
7. Acceptance is the responsibility of the transportation agency.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
8. The engineering limits are the absolute threshold values for individual test results.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
,9. Quality assurance specifications typically use quality measures.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
10. Since the objective of the IA comparison is to identify discrepancies or variability
in testing procedures or equipment, IA testing is performed on split samples.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
11. Dispute resolution is a formal system designed to address significant differences
between agency acceptance test data and/or observations and contractor QC test
data and/or observations.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
12. All agency central laboratories are required under federal regulations to be
accredited through the AASHTO accreditation program (AAP).
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
13. Personnel qualification/certification programs should include requirements for
recertification at 2 to 5-year intervals.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
14. Each agency construction QA program must meet requirements of 23 CFR 637B
and is required to be approved by FHWA.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
15. Asphalt binder exists in both naturally occurring and manufactured forms.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
16. Another appropriate term for asphalt binder is tar.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
17. An asphalt binder blended with water in a colloid mill is called an emulsion.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
18. Viscosity is defined as a fluid's ability to flow (higher viscosity = more flowable).
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
19. When exposed to air over an extended period of time, asphalt binder tends to
stiffen and become less flexible.
, o CORRECT ANSWER: True
20. A PG binder with a grade of 64-27 would be used in a warmer climate than a PG
binder with a grade of 70-28.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
21. A PG 64-28 may or may not be modified.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
22. The binder supplier should always be consulted for recommendations on the
optimum mixing and compaction temperatures for modified binders at the plant.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
23. Using the AASHTO M 320 criteria, very heavy traffic, slow-moving, or standing
traffic may require a grade increase for the high-temperature criteria.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
24. A binder with a rating of 64E-22 means the performance of the binder is
extended (E) on the high end.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
25. Elastomers are thermoplastic in that changes in temperature affect which
characteristics of the polymer are predominant at any given time, and those
changes are recoverable (reversible).
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
26. 85-90% of the overall volume of an asphalt mixture is occupied by aggregate.
o CORRECT ANSWER: True
27. The nominal maximum size is defined as the first sieve that retains more than
10% in a cumulative fashion.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False
28. The aggregate grading of an asphalt mixture has no influence on the properties
of the mixture.
o CORRECT ANSWER: False