Materials Division
Maritime Testing (1985) Limited is a recognized innovative leader in the provision of materials engineering, testing and inspection services to the consulting and construction industry. Our Dartmouth testing laboratory was the first in Nova Scotia to be Canadian Standards Association (CSA) certified Category II with additional tests. Maritime Testing provides consulting engineering, testing and inspection services in the areas of construction materials (concrete, asphalt concrete, aggregates, soils and rock). Maritime Testing laboratories provide a broad range of ASTM and CSA testing services to residential and commercial developers, road builders and resource industries. The Materials Division coupled with in-house geotechnical expertise can provide preliminary site evaluation, design, design specification, construction administration, and quality control services. In addition to consulting and professional engineering, services are available for evaluation and rehabilitation of older structures such as parking garages, wharves and bridges. Materials consulting engineering, testing and inspection services are available in the following areas:
Asphalt Concrete Technology
● Asphalt concrete Marshall mix design for highways and municipalities
● Asphalt concrete EPS quality control and quality assurance testing and inspection
● Full suite of asphalt concrete aggregate acceptance testing
● Asphalt concrete moisture damage Lottman testing
● Hot mix plant checks and calibration
● Superpave Mix designsPortland Cement Concrete Technology
● Concrete field testing and inspection
● Concrete mix designs and trial batches
● Concrete durability evaluations; Concrete repair and rehabilitation consulting
● Alkali Aggregate Reactivity (AAR) testing
● Non-destructive testing and structure condition assessment
● Delamination surveys; Covermeter and half-cell surveys
● Quality control/assurance of pre-stressed beams, precast box-culverts and pipes
● Hardened Air-Void Properties (ASTM C457-06)
● Rapid Chloride Ion Penetrability (ASTM C 1202-05)Soils and Aggregates Technology
● Laboratory soils and aggregate testing
● Site supervision and compaction testing
● Pit and quarry development
● Petrography
●Permeability testing, laboratory and field (air-entry permeameter)
● Landfill and sewage treatment lagoon cell construction, consulting, testing and inspectionPavement Evaluation and Design
Maritime Testing’s Materials Engineering Division also provides pavement evaluations and designs for flexible and rigid pavements. Maritime Testing utilizes specialized equipment in the evaluation of pavements. Some of our capabilities include:
● Pavement design for flexible and rigid pavements
● Pavement distress surveys
● Non-destructive pavement strength testing utilizing Dynaflect deflections
● Non-destructive pavement strength testing utilizing Benkelman Beam deflections
● Asphalt concrete overlay designs
● Rehabilitation strategy evaluation
● Pavement surface roughness evaluation
● Frictional properties (skid resistance) testing of pavements utilizing British Pendulum
● Pavement surface smoothness testing utilizing California Profilograph & High Speed Profilograph
● Rut and profile measuring utilizing digital profiler (Dipstick™)
● Macrotexture determination of pavements utilizing sand patch testingMaritime Testing provides quality control services to various contractors conducting hot mix asphalt concrete paving under the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (NSTIR) End Product Specification (EPS). Under EPS, the contractor is in control of the construction materials and processes, such as gravels, asphalt aggregates and the placement and compaction of hot mix asphalt concrete. The contractor is responsible to implement and maintain a quality control system to assure the NSTIR that all products submitted are in conformance with the contract requirements and the specification. Various aspects of the final product are subject to price adjustments, depending on how the outcome conforms to the NSTIR specifications.
For a typical EPS project, Maritime Testing performs the following tasks:
● Development of a Quality Control Inspection Testing Plan (ITP)
● Preliminary Aggregate Acceptance Testing
● Quality Control During Asphalt Aggregate Production
● Asphalt Concrete Mix Designs
● Moisture Damage Assessment
● Quality Control During Hot Mix Asphalt Concrete Production
● Quality Control During Placement of Hot Mix Asphalt Concrete
● Smoothness Testing With The California Type Profilograph
● Final ReportPre-cast Pre-stressed Portland Cement Concrete Elements
Maritime Testing has provided quality assurance inspection and testing services for Pre-cast Pre-stressed Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) to the NSTIR since 1993. During the course of a typical project, Maritime Testing provides inspection services for the following phases of fabrication:
● Aggregate Testing
● Installation of Reinforcing Steel
● Pre-tensioning Operations
● Concrete Production, Placement and Curing
● De-tensioning Operations
● Finishing
● Dimension TolerancesMaritime Testing (1985) Limited continues to grow. In 2005 we purchased the equipment to perform two new kinds of testing. The first is the Microscopical Determination of Parameters of the Air-Void System in Hardened Concrete (ASTM C457-06) and the second is the Electrical Indication of Concrete’s Ability to Resist Chloride Ion Penetration (ASTM C1202-05). These tests have allowed us to expand our capabilities in the concrete technology and testing area. Maritime Testing welcomes the opportunity to advance its reputation for providing quality, timely service over an ever-broadening variety of engineering and testing procedures.
Soil and Aggregate Laboratory Acceptance Testing
Maritime Testing routinely conducts testing of soils and aggregates to be used for construction purposes. The following are the typical tests conducted for the acceptance of soils, asphalt aggregates and concrete aggregates:
Soils
● Grain Size Distribution
● Plasticity Index
● Moisture-Density Relationship (Proctor)
● Absorption
● Los Angeles Abrasion Test
● Micro Deval Test
● Permeability TestsSieve Analysis
● Los Angeles Abrasion
● Specific Gravity and Absorption
● Soundness Loss
● Percentage of Fractured, Flat & Elongated Particles
● Petrographic Number
● Fine Aggregate Angularity
● Sand Equivalent
● Unit Weight
● Flakiness IndexConcrete Aggregates
● Sieve Analysis with Fineness Modulus
● Clay Lumps
● Low Density Granular Materials
● Organic Impurities
● Material Finer Than 80-mm
● Soundness Loss - determined using magnesium sulfate (MgSO4)
● Relative Density and Absorption
● Color Test
● Los Angeles Abrasion Test
● Micro Deval Test
● Unconfined Freeze / Thaw Test
● Percentage of Flat & Elongated Particles
● Potential Expansivity of Aggregates, Length Change Due to Alkali-Aggregate
● Reaction (AAR)
