Construction Materials Engineering

ETTL’s Construction Materials Testing and Engineering Capabilities:

• Construction materials testing, for Soils, Aggregates, Concrete, Asphalt and Pond Liners (both soil and synthetic) for landfills; roofing materials; bridge bearing pads; and many other specialized testing situations, including testing of fireproofing materials.
• Observations and Testing for Soil and Concrete for highways, bridges and dams, landfills, buildings and structures of all types.
• Observations of reinforcing steel, structural steel and post tension to ensure they are correctly sized and located.
• Evaluating and trouble-shooting existing pavement installations: runways, roads, bridges and parking lots, plus such specialized constructions as heavy industrial pavements.
• Soil Resistivity Testing—helping clients make sure the grounding systems they are designing (or have already installed) will be compatible with the soil in which they are placed.
• Pavement Design Services—for roads, highways, parking areas—for infrastructure and other clients.

ETTL’s CME Quality Control Program

ETTL participates in several proficiency sample testing programs, including those conducted by AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory (AMRL); Cement & Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL); and TxDOT Materials & Test Division Bituminous Proficiency Sampling. As part of their routines, the programs involve ETTL's laboratory facilities, which run tests on representative samples prepared by these agencies. ETTL meets the requirements of ASTM E 329.

ETTL also has been inspected and approved for work by the Texas Department of Transportation. And, as the need arises, ETTL has been verified by the Corps of Engineers for work on various Corps projects.

ETTL Portland Cement Concrete Testing & Design Services

• Making, curing and testing concrete cylinders.
• Flexural strength testing of beams.
• Determining unit weight, air content and slump of concrete.
• Testing of aggregates for soundness, abrasion, specific gravity and gradation.
• Design of Portland Cement concrete mixes.
• Determining penetration resistance of hardened concrete.
• Determining rebound number of hardened concrete.

ETTL Asphaltic Concrete Testing & Design Services

• Bulk specific gravity and density of compacted mixtures.
• Resistance to plastic flow using Marshall apparatus.
• Resistance to deformation and cohesion by HVEEM apparatus.
• Theoretical maximum specific gravity of asphaltic concrete paving mixtures.
• Extraction of asphalt from paving mixtures.
• Mechanical analysis of extracted aggregates.

Steel Testing Services

• Visual inspection of steel during the erection phase, including inspection of structural and reinforcing steel such as post tension cables making sure they are correctly sized and located in compliance with construction drawings.
• Bolt torque verification.
• Visual inspection of welds.
• Welder qualification determination.

Soils and Aggregates Testing for Construction Materials Engineering Projects

• Moisture-density relationship (Proctor) of soils and aggregates.
• Moisture, density of soils and aggregates by nuclear, ring sleeve or sand cone methods.
• Soil classification and grain size analyses.
• California bearing ratio.
• Resistivity of soil material.
• Consolidation and swell properties.
• Hydraulic conductivity.
• Los Angeles abrasion.
• Designs for soil stabilization, making use of chemical additives to alter physical properties of soil.