Standards
To provide all City agencies a complete range of materials testing services in the fields of design, construction and environmental protection in the most cost effective and timely manner with motivated, competent and experienced professional staff using state-of-the-art procedures and equipment.
Services
Standards Division is comprised of four (4) main sections and thirteen (13) individual units providing material testing and quality control services in the areas of design, construction and environmental protection. These services are provided for the City of Los Angeles projects only. Through special arrangement, similar services could be provided to other counties, municipalities and companies providing services and materials to the City of Los Angeles.
Standards Division’s Main Sections:
- Roads & Highways Section: Provides testing services for road construction, reconstruction and maintenance. All phases from planning, evaluation, design, mix design, construction monitoring, and quality control are supported.
- Geotechnical Section: Soil testing for foundation design, compaction for earth moving and construction quality control and other geotechnical investigations and design recommendations.
- Construction Section: Provides testing services for concrete, re-bar, cement, concrete blocks, bricks, pavement and overlay design and construction control, asphalt concrete design and quality control, high strength bolts, nuts and washers, spark testing for sewer liners, ultrasonic testing structural steel welds, drilling and much more.
- I.A.T., Enviro-Chem, Administration & Systems Section
- Independent Assurance Testing (I.A.T.): Provides independent evaluation of material sampling and testing methods to assure compliance with federal quality requirements.
- Enviro-Chem: Provides testing to determine the extent and severity of soil and ground water contamination.
- Administration: Supports personnel management, cost accounting, billing and time-keeping for the division.
- Systems: Maintains and enhances information systems and lab automation for the division.
Roads & Highways
The Roads & Highways Section consists of three units that provides complete testing services for road construction, reconstruction and maintenance. All phases from planning, evaluation, design, mix design, construction monitoring, and quality control are supported.
Pavement Evaluation Unit
Provides non-destructive deflection testing services for use in pavement structural evaluation and overlay design for flexible and rigid pavement. This unit also provides core sampling on pavement and wall structures.
Asphalt Concrete Unit
Tests asphalt based paving materials and is AMRL accredited. Full support for paving projects from mix design verification to compaction testing by nuclear gauge. Testing is performed on Emulsion Aggregate Slurry, Asphalt Concrete, Rubberized Recycled Asphalt Concrete, and Aggregate.
Asphalt Binder Unit
Performs state of the art Superpave binder tests to characterize asphalt cement, additives, recycling agents and emulsions. This unit also performs extensive research on new modified as well as unmodified binders, warm mix asphalts (WMA), modified emulsions and additives. In addition, this unit develops specifications for new modified binders used on LA streets.
Geoprobe Unit
Provides subsurface investigation through Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) and Direct Push sampling for the evaluation of geotechnical properties. Geoprobe’s CPT and Direct Push sampling allow Standards Division to provide faster and more cost-effective testing services to client compared to conventional drilling.
Geotechnical Section
The Geotechnical Section consists of four areas that provide soil testing services as well as drilling and complete geotechnical engineering services.
Compaction Laboratory
Tests soils for relative compaction. Certified personnel conduct field in-place density tests using both the nuclear gauge and sand cone methods. Soil is tested for lab maximum density and optimum moisture content.
Foundation & Classification Laboratory
Performs soil tests including particle size, Atterberg limits, direct shear, consolidation, triaxial, California Bearing Ratio, R-value, and permeability.
Special Projects Unit
Inspects and monitors earthwork construction activities such as excavations and backfill compaction. This group performs fill certifications, coordinates soil testing and provides geotechnical engineering analyses and recommend.
Construction Section
The Construction Section consists of four laboratories that provide testing services on construction materials.
Physical Laboratory
Performs compression strength tests on concrete and masonry products. Tensile strength test are performed on steel products including reinforcing steel and pre-stressed cables. D-load tests are performed on both concrete and clay pipe. Sampling and testing is also conducted on PCC aggregate.
Special Materials and Research Laboratory
Tests miscellaneous construction materials including paint, rubber, plastic, coatings, sewer rehabilitation products, high strength bolts, metals, floor finishing materials, and sewer system liners. Non-destructive testing is also available for welds and construction materials.
Drilling Unit
Provides drilling, logging, and sampling services for subsurface investigation. Full laboratory support is available for testing soil engineering properties and possible chemical contamination. Other services include well installation and well abandonment.
Enviro-Chem Section
The Environmental-Chemistry Section consists of three fully equipped environmental and chemical laboratories certified by the State of California. These labs perform analysis on materials including wastewater, industrial waste, and solids using EPA approved methods. The labs provide testing to satisfy the requirements of local, state, and federal programs such as Title 22, UST, and NPDES.
CHEMICAL Laboratory
Analyzes for traditional wastewater constituents such as total and fecal coliform, BOD, cyanide, phenols, nitrogen compounds, and anions (chloride, fluoride, etc..). The solid materials tested include cement, soil, aggregate, concrete, and lime slurry.
INORGANIC Laboratory
Analyzes samples for over 25 metals including lead, selenium, mercury, and arsenic.
ORGANIC Laboratory
Tests for more than 150 constituents including benzene, toluene, chloroform, and DDT. Analyses performed include VOC, PCB, BNA and other semi-volatile organic compounds, pesticides, as well as gasoline and diesel range petroleum hydrocarbons.
Independent Assurance
The Independent Assurance Testing Section provides independent evaluation of material sampling and testing methods to meet federal quality requirements.
Routinely Tested Materials
| AC Aggregates | Pipe Products, Clay |
| Asphalt | Concrete, Plastic, |
| Asphalt Concrete | Steel |
| Base Materials | Plastics |
| Cement | Reinforcing Steel |
| Coatings | Rebar |
| Concrete | Sewer Liners |
| Fireproofing Materials | Coatings |
| Geotextiles | Slurry Seal |
| Masonry Products | Soils |
| Metals | Steel Products |
| Paints | Steel Welds |
| Pavement | Water, Ground |
| PCC Aggregates | Sewer, Storm Drain |
State-of-the-Art Technology
| Falling Weight | Superpave Level 1 |
| Deflectometer | Mix Design |
| GC/MS | Binder Testing |
| ICP-AES |
Nondestructive Technology
| Liquid Penetrant Testing | Ultrasonic Testing |
| Magnetic Particle Testing | Ground Penetrating |
| Spark Testing | Radar (GPR) |
Glossary
| AASHTO | American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials |
| ACI | American Concrete Institute |
| AMRL | AASHTO Materials Reference Library |
| ASTM | American Society for Testing and Materials |
| BNA | Base-Neutral and Acid Extractables |
| CBR | California Bearing Ratio |
| DDT | Dichloro Diphenyl Trichlor |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency |
| GC/MS | Gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer detector |
| GREENBOOK | SSPWC: Standard Specifications for Public Works Construction |
| ICP-AES | Inductive Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectograph |
| I.A.T. | Independent Assurance Testing |
| NPDES | National Pollution Discharge Elimination System |
| PCB | Polychlorinated Biphenyls |
| PCC | Portland Concrete Cement |
| R-VALUE | Resistance parameter for pavement design |
| S-VALUE | Stability parameter from Hveem method |
| S.T.A.R. | Safety, Training, Accreditation, Research Section |
| UST | Underground Storage Tanks |
| VOC | Volatile Organic Compounds |
Standards Division Brochure
Contact Us
2319 Dorris Place
Los Angeles, CA 90031
(213) 485-2242 Fax (213) 485-5075
Division Hours
Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m to 10:30 p.m