Abstract
As highway agencies moved away from the older prescription-type specifications and began to develop end-result and performance-related specifications, several different statistical measures of quality have been used. These include the sample mean (x); percent defective or its complement, percent within limits; and the average absolute deviation. Conformal index is yet another measure that has been proposed. What has not been undertaken during this developmental period is any sort of formal analysis to determine which, if any, of these measures accurately reflects the expected performance of the construction items to which they are applied. Specialized computer programs were developed to demonstrate potential weaknesses of current quality measures and to explore alternate approaches that may overcome these weaknesses. It was found that pay equations based on the mean and standard deviation computed from the sample can be tailored to closely match the value of the constructed product as estimated by life-cycle cost techniques. It is believed that this forms a practical starting point for the development of construction acceptance procedures more closely linked to quantified performance models.
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