<p><p><h2>Preferred QC/QA Procedures</h2>There is no FHWA guidance that addresses QC/QA procedures or provides guidelines for implementing the electro-osmosis technology.</p><p>Construction quality is achieved by meeting established requirements, as detailed in project plans and specifications, including applicable codes and standards. QC and QA are terms applied to the procedures, measurements, and observations used to ensure that construction satisfies the requirements in the project plans and specifications. QC and QA are often misunderstood and used interchangeably. Herein, QC refers to procedures, measurements, and observations used by the contractor to monitor and control the construction quality such that all applicable requirements are satisfied. QA refers to measurements and observations by the owner or the owner's engineer to provide assurance to the owner that the facility has been constructed in accordance with the plans and specifications.</p><p>The typical components of QC/QA monitoring programs for using electro-osmosis technology are listed in Tables 1, 2, and 3.<br><h3>TABLE 1. TYPICAL EXISTING QC/QA PROCEDURES AND MEASUREMENT ITEMS</h3><table class='tablepress' id='tablepress-1950'><thead><th><center>QC or QA</th><th><center>Material or Process</th><th><center>Items</th></thead><tbody><tr><td ><center>QC</td><td ><center>Material Related</td><td >• Moisture content, density, lateral movement, electrical conductivity of soil

</td></tr><tr><td ><center>QC</td><td ><center>Process Control</td><td >• Electrode temperature at cathode, ground water table, electricity consumption, water discharge, ground settlement</td></tr><tr><td ><center>QA</td><td ><center>Material Related</td><td >• Shear strength, bearing capacity, stiffness/modulus, pavement deflections, CBR, degree of consolidation, density, moisture content, liquefaction potential, index properties, electrical conductivity of soil, chemical absorption
</td></tr><tr><td ><center>QA</td><td ><center>Process Control</td><td >• Surface settlement</td></tr></tbody></table><br><h3>TABLE 2. PERFORMANCE CRITERIA USE IN QC/QA MONITORING PROGRAMS</h3><table class='tablepress' id='tablepress-1951'><thead><th><center>Topics</th><th><center>Items</th></thead><tbody><tr><td ><center>Material Parameters</td><td >• Shear strength, bearing capacity, stiffness/modulus, CBR, degree of consolidation, liquefaction potential
</td></tr><tr><td ><center>System Behavior</td><td >• Settlement, uniformity</td></tr></tbody></table><br><h3>TABLE 3. EMERGING QC/QA PROCEDURES AND MEASUREMENT ITEMS</h3><table class='tablepress' id='tablepress-1952'><thead><th><center>Topics</th><th><center>Items</th></thead><tbody><tr><td ><center>Material Related</td><td >• Falling weight deflectometer testing, light weight deflectometer testing</td></tr><tr><td ><center>Process Control</td><td >• Strain in soil reinforcement (when geosynthetic electrodes are used as reinforcement)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p><strong>Preferred QC/QA Procedures</strong></p><p>Different types of in-situ spot testing methods have been used or potentially can be used for QC/QA for this technology. These methods are as follows:<br><ul> <li>Settlement monitoring</li> <li>Field shear strength testing</li> <li>Soil sampling for laboratory testing</li> <li>In-situ penetration testing</li> <li>Pressuremeter testing</li> <li>Plate load testing</li> <li>Piezometers</li> <li>Water discharge monitoring</li> <li>Power monitoring</li> <li>Liquefaction potential tester</li> <li>Pavement deflection monitoring</li></ul>Some of these test methods have been used on field studies where electro-osmosis has been applied while some have not been thoroughly evaluated (e.g., dynamic plate load tests, liquefaction tester). Standard guidelines are not available for methods such as settlement monitoring, water discharge monitoring, and power monitoring.</p><p>Inspections, construction observations, daily logs, and record keeping are essential QC/QA activities for all technologies. These activities help to ensure and/or verify that:<br><ul> <li>Good construction practices and the project specifications are followed.</li> <li>Problems can be anticipated before they occur, in some cases.</li> <li>Problems that do arise are caught early, and their cause can oftentimes be identified.</li> <li>All parties are in good communication.</li> <li>The project stays on schedule.</li></ul>Standard guidelines and specifications for QC/QA for electro-osmosis are currently not available. The guidelines provided above must be considered in development of standards and specifications in the future for electro-osmosis.</p></p>