2. Project Organization

2.3 PRECONSTRUCTION CONFERENCE

A preconstruction conference (or pre-paving meeting) should be held before work on a project begins, in time to allow for discussion, clarification, and any agreed-upon changes to be made. This conference is an opportunity to help all parties understand the responsibilities of the owner’s representatives and the contractor’s personnel. Details of the project should be covered so all affected parties understand the “who, what, why, when, where, and how.”

A preconstruction conference (or pre-paving meeting) should be held before work on a project begins, in time to allow for discussion, clarification, and any agreed-upon changes to be made. This conference is an opportunity to help all parties understand the responsibilities of the owner’s representatives and the contractor’s personnel.

Building a successful paving project is a partnership between all the parties involved, with the goal of delivering a top-quality result as a product of teamwork. Good communication is key, and the preconstruction conference sets the tone for future communication and cooperation. It is important that all aspects of the work be thoroughly discussed, potential problem areas be addressed, and any questions or concerns dealt with. All answers may not be available during the meeting, but action items can be assigned to provide the answers later when available. A good practice is to include a projected date by when each question should be answered to keep the questions from being forgotten.

Attendees at this meeting include key personnel representing the owner, contractor, subcontractors, testing firms, consultants, etc. Titles of key personnel include engineer, project manager, inspector, testing technician, superintendent, paving foreman, and plant manager. For airfield projects, airport management and airport operations should be represented to discuss airfield access, security, safety, etc. Lists of key personnel assigned to the project should be shared between the owner and contractor, with clear lines of authority and lines of communication delineated.

The agency is responsible for convening and conducting this preconstruction meeting. Agency personnel will outline the scope of the project, reviewing information provided in the contract documents. The agency representatives should also discuss any unusual aspects of the job—items that are not routine construction practices. The agency should review testing and sampling requirements to ensure everyone involved in the project understands the following:

• Purpose of all testing.
• Frequency of tests and taking of material samples.
• Responsibility for performing the tests and/or taking the samples.
• Location of tests or material samples.
• Details on handling, transporting, and testing of material samples.
• Timeframe and procedures for reporting test results and to whom they should be reported.
• Response to failing tests, including penalties, work stoppage, etc.

The individuals representing the contractor should be familiar with all aspects of the job and be able to speak with authority about their plans to accomplish the work. A progress schedule for the job should be presented and discussed with the agency representatives. Questions about the content in the contract documents should be raised and clarification requested. Because continuity of asphalt paving operations is critical to providing quality pavement, the contractor personnel should include items such as material sources, plant production rates, haul distances and routes, paving sequence, paving widths and speed, type and quantity of equipment to be used, etc.

The contractor QC plan is the process that the contractor will use to ensure that quality is controlled, and it should be discussed during the preconstruction conference as well. In particular, the testing that falls under QC should be covered, including how QC data is collected, reported, and perhaps used as part of acceptance. Chapter 11 discusses QC as part of QA.

Typically, on large projects and for all airfield projects, specifications require the construction of a test section prior to full asphalt mix production and paving operations. The purpose of the test section (also referred to as the control strip, test strip, etc.) is to evaluate the compliance of the job mix formula (JMF), mix production, transportation, laydown, and compaction relative to the requirements in the project documents. When the project specifies this approach, full production should not begin until an acceptable test section has been constructed and accepted by the owner.

One of the most important items to be addressed at the preconstruction conference is job safety, a topic also covered at the end of this chapter. Safety is the responsibility of everyone involved with the project. Discussion of this topic should include not only the safety of those working on the job (contractor, subcontractors, and agency personnel) but also the safety of the traveling public and any traffic likely to operate in the vicinity of the work zone (e.g., airplanes). Clear responsibility should be delineated for maintenance of all traffic control devices, such as signs, pavement markings, and flagging. The name of the contractor representative responsible for safety should be provided to the agency so that rapid and clear communications can be accomplished should safety issues occur. For airfields in particular, an emergency response plan should be discussed since access to the site is usually tightly controlled compared to roadways.