Committed to Composite Reinforcement

 

Regulatory Resources is commited to the composite reinforcement industry. Our goal is to ensure that our DOT partners have a program that will provide a level playing field of material acceptance to enable the development and maintenance of a qualified suppliers list.

 

By providing a third-party quality assurance program specifically to address the needs of highway construction, we hope to facilitate method by which composite reinforcement can be specified by those DOT professionals who desire non-corrosive reinforcement. We encourage your state to work with us on providing QA/QC solutions through our Advisory Board of DOT professionals.

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Regulatory Resources to Facilitate FRP Testing for NCDOT Harkers Island Project

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FRP Certification Initiative

This summer, I met with two high-ranking officials at FHWA to discuss the development of a third-party certification program for the composite reinforcement industry. The concept stems from my interaction with state DOT offices throughout the U.S.

 

The majority of DOTs have little understanding of composite reinforcement or, frankly, how to specify it. FHWA believes in innovation, and years ago created the Every Day Counts program to enhance technology and fund innovation in highway projects. DOTs are eager to find a more sustainable approach for their transportation projects, with a goal of creating new infrastructure that has a longer life cycle. That’s why they are interested in non-corrosive reinforcement, such as FRPs. 

 

Alongside that, we have an industry that struggles to grow highway market share and DOT offices hesitant to specify FRPs because there is no real way to qualify material acceptance and maintain a qualified supplier list. 

 

The vision here is to bring these two worlds together through a third-party program that takes the burden of QA/QC away from DOT and enables the industry to have manufacturing QA guidelines that assures DOTs that suppliers have met or exceeded industry standards. Currently, programs like ISO and ICC are process driven. ICC is more for vertical construction and lacks key elements such as material standards specific to the manufacturing process for FRPs. 

 

A new FRP certification program would be specifically designed to level the playing field of material acceptance prescriptively for the FRP industry to give our DOT partners the assurance they need to advaance specifications and design for accelerated use of FRPs.  

 

The DOT Advisory Board that Regulatory Resources created is independently engaging with all other DOT offices to discuss the prospects for an FRP certification initiative. I encourage anyone interested in having a discussion on this concept to reach out to me with any questions. We have the current technology and materials to advance sustainable infrastructure now is the time to make it reality.