OasisLMS

The objective is to enlighten the community as to the incompatibility between construction documents (especially from regulatory specifiers like DOT, Corps of Engineers and Ministry of Transport) and requirements to deliver constructible, durable, sustainable and cost-efficient infrastructure. Regulatory governmental construction contract documents are typically maintaining traditional prescriptive language in their tendered projects. This is creating a significant barrier for bidders to efficiently and practically deliver a successful infrastructure project. Traditional prescriptive requirements often include minimum cement contents, limit the proportions of supplementary cementing materials or utilize empirical limits that are unsubstantiated based on current materials, mechanical properties, and methods innovations. They are also barriers to attaining more sustainable concrete construction. There is a reticence to migrate towards a performance approach which appreciates the depletion of raw materials sources and allows for innovation, sustainability, constructability, and cost effectiveness. On many infrastructure projects, specifiers do not appreciate the need to move to performance type documents and are combining prescriptive with performance creating confusion and contradictory messages.

The contents of this course include four recorded presentations from the ACI 2023 Fall Convention:
1. Performance Specifications: It Starts with Education by W James Wilde, Texas State University
2. The Road Not Taken, A Look at Performance-Based Specifications from the Point of View of a Canadian Ready-Mix Producer by Bryan Schulz, CBM
3. Carbon and Performance Based Specifications by Jolene McLaughlin, EllisDon Corporation
4. Canadian Performance Standards Including Recent Developments in Performance Tests and Limits by R Doug Hooton, University of Toronto

1. Report on the current state of the art with respect to Performance Specifications and how they are in fact misrepresented by inclusion of prescriptive requirements.
2. Discuss the divergence and variation in performance requirements across the country.
3. Describe the strategies now being used in university programs to familiarize engineering students with the needs to be consistent in preparation of technical contract documents for performance.
4. Demonstrate the recent performance tests that have been developed to ensure compliance with a performance specification.

Study the materials included in this module. Then, complete and pass the corresponding 10-question quiz with a score of 80% or higher to receive a certificate for 0.15 CEU (1.5 PDH).
Continuing Education Credit: 0.15 CEU (1.5 PDH)
Approved AIA and ICC
Access Period: 30 days