Materials Testing
R&M has been providing materials testing services since 1970. We maintain excellent relationships with contractors and owners throughout Alaska and have a reputation for quality, integrity and professionalism. R&M’s Materials Laboratory received accreditation from the American Association of State Highway Transportation (AASHTO) and certification from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) many years ago. The AASHTO and USACE programs are the premier accreditation programs for construction materials testing in the country. R&M takes pride in the variety of tests we are certified to perform and realize that excellence only comes through investing in our team. We are committed to the continuing advancement and improvement of our personnel and facilities to maintain our position as the leading materials testing firm in Alaska.
Supervising Laboratory Technician
Ryan McCormick, WAQTC
Ryan has been a member of the R&M team since March 2003. He has 18 years of experience testing construction materials, and currently serves as the Supervising Laboratory Technician in R&M’s AASHTO Accredited Materials Engineering Laboratory. Ryan performs testing of soils, aggregate, concrete and asphalt paving materials in the field and laboratory. He has been involved in testing materials for many different project types for a variety of commercial and governmental clients.
Soils, Aggregate, Asphalt and Concrete Sampling and Testing Term Agreement
Various Locations
In 2012, R&M was awarded a second consecutive term agreement to provide sampling and testing of soils, aggregate, asphalt and concrete on Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities projects. Over the two terms of this contract to date, R&M has provided sampling and testing services on nearly 80 projects, including airports, roadways, bridges, and utilities.
R&M provided materials testing services for construction of a new bridge. Testing includes aggregate and soils for particle size distribution, moisture/density relationships, and field density with oversize correction. For concrete, we provided source, including aggregate quality, moisture and gradation, fresh concrete for slump, temperature, air content, unit weight, and yield calculations, as well as compressive strength on samples cast on site during the pour. Asphalt testing included developing the AC mix design utilizing the marshal method and testing for maximum bulk specific gravity, flow, stability, percent voids and percent voids filled, as well as theoretical maximum specific gravity and field densities by nuclear and core methods.
In support of construction inspection performed by our in-house inspectors, R&M was responsible for soils and concrete testing. Field testing on soils included compaction density testing with oversize correction and soils sampling. We tested soils material in the field with a nuclear density gauge. Lab testing included gradations, proctors, hydrometers, coarse specific gravity and moistures. Concrete field testing included sampling, temperature, slump, unit weight, air content, and casting of concrete cylinders. Laboratory testing included compressive strength of the concrete cylinders.