Material Coring, Testing & Sampling Framework

Tender description

West Lothian Council is responsible for the maintenance and repair of all carriageways, footways, verges and remote footpaths within the public road network of West Lothian region. The Roads and Transportation department delivers an extensive programme of works, including carriageway surfacing and structural maintenance. A Material Coring, Testing & Sampling Framework is being created to enable materials testing to be undertaken prior to and during works. Services include: Coring on the existing carriageway network within West Lothian and the identification of the presence of coal tar within these cores. Sampling and testing of aggregates. Sampling and testing of soil materials and ground conditions including minor site investigation work and detection of voids. Testing of bituminous materials used during various carriageway resurfacing schemes throughout West Lothian (including surface dressing). Measurement and testing of thermoplastic road marking materials, Road pavement testing to determine residual characteristics. Sampling, testing and analysis of structural concrete and cementitious materials (includes both fresh and hardened materials). Sampling and testing of paint and coating materials used on structures. Provide reports and all test certificates. Lot 1: Lot 1 – Routine sampling and testing of Civil Engineering construction materials Lot 1 will primarily encompass the sampling, testing and analysis of a variety of road construction materials including: - Unbound stone/aggregate materials - bituminous pavement materials including surface dressing - bituminous pavement characteristics (e.g. skid resistance, texture depth, surface regularity etc) - concrete materials (including fresh concrete and kerbs) - soils, sub-base, formation materials to determine ground conditions (e.g. grading, moisture content, shear strength, density, compaction, CBR testing etc) It is expected that the bidding laboratory will have a current UKAS accreditation but bids from non-UKAS accredited labs may be considered if they can demonstrate they have adequate quality management systems in place. Lot 2: Lot 2 – Coring and Testing to determine coal tar content in bituminous pavements Lot 2 will cover the sampling of bituminous road pavement materials (generally by extracted road pavement core) to determine if coal tar is present within the layers of the road pavement. It will include for an initial test (generally by the PAK marker paint method) to determine the presence of coal tar and, if coal tar is indicated, laboratory analysis to determine and confirm if coal tar is present, and if so, the amount of coal tar present. We will be following “The Transport Scotland Guidance Note: ‘Dealing with coal tar bound arisings’” for the methods of coal tar sampling, sample preparation, testing and reporting of results. Bidding laboratories will be expected to work in accordance with that guidance note. The Guidance Note requires that the laboratory involved in the sample preparation and testing must be UKAS accredited as a minimum. Lot 3: Lot 3 –Investigation of concrete structures Lot 3 is primarily targeted at the testing of existing concrete structural assets such as road bridges and underpasses. The work will include the sampling and analysis of hardened concrete and structural paint coatings and will include a range of (mostly non-destructive) tests. - Among the included tests will be; the determination of: the chloride content of hardened concrete the sulfate content of hardened concrete the depth of carbonation of hardened concrete the cement and aggregate content of hardened concrete - Cover meter survey (to determine location and depth of reinforcement steel in a structure) - Half-cell potentiometer testing (to determine condition and corrosion of reinforcement in hardened concrete) - Schmidt/Rebound spring driven hammer survey (to measure surface hardness of concrete as a means of estimating the concrete strength) - Petrographic sampling, testing and analysis of concrete (to determine mineralogical and chemical characteristics and to determine whether the aggregates therein are susceptible to Alkali Silica Reaction) Also, required will be the sampling and testing of structural coatings including paint sampling and analysis for lead content, paint thickness testing and paint adhesion/pull off testing. Lot 4: Lot 4 – Site Investigation Lot 4 will encompass a small range of site investigation services, that will include: - Trial pits/trial holes to determine ground conditions, material layers, and for material sampling etc. in both superficial deposits/soils and in bituminous pavements - Extraction of soil samples using hand auger techniques. - Ground Penetrating Radar survey to identify changes in ground conditions and voids. - All services to will include for the technical reporting of findings.