Laboratory Information Management System

Laboratory Information Management System By Jay N. Meegoda 1, Chi Tang 2, Mike McDonald 3 and Tracy Boucher 3 ABSTRACT This paper describes the research funded by New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to develop a computerized Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). LIMS is a state-of-the-art system, which resulted from close corporation between a material engineer, a computer/operations research specialist and NJDOT Bureau of Materials, to develop a comprehensive and fully functional Laboratory Information Management System for the NJDOT. In order for proper implementation a mission statement was developed, based on which the proposed system was formulated. This system consists of three major components: a database; an administrative management interface and a database-driven web application. A pilot scale intranet-based information management system was developed, installed, tested, and currently being certified by NJDOT. The pilot scale database-driven web application of LIMS currently contains all the forms for three major construction materials plus the closeout forms required by FHWA. LIMS significantly reduces the paper-work loads and provides the capability to organize relevant data and rapid test approvals. The implementation of LIMS has also shortened the time taken between project completion and final closeout procedure mandated by the federal highway administration for federally funded projects. The concept and the LIMS have a great potential to be a showcase for the nation and to be adopted by other transportation agencies for management of material and laboratory test data. Key Words: Laboratory, Information, Management, System, Intranet, Highway Materials, Database, Computer, Testing, Quality Control and Quality Assurance. 1 New Jersey Institute of Technology, Civil & Env. Engineering, Newark, NJ 07102 2 NJ Institute of Transportation, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 3 New Jersey Department of Transportation, Bureau of Materials, Trenton, NJ

INTRODUCTION Information management in transportation is a systematic and cost-effective process of maintaining, upgrading, and operating physical information. It combines the use of sound engineering principles, accepted business practices, and economic theory to improve the decision-making process. The first application of information management in transportation occurred approximately twenty years ago with the development of pavement management information systems. Other current and functional information management systems include Freeway Management System (Arizona Department of Transportation), Safety Information Management System (Florida Department of Transportation) and Project Management and Progress Tracking System (NJDOT). The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) took a leadership role in developing research needs for a computerized database information management system. The NJDOT recognized that need exists to reduce paperwork; expedite the material approval process; shorten the time between project completion and final closeout, and analyze the functional relationships between material testing data and material performances in order to identify significant trends in time. Currently, most material test results are applied on a micro scale and paper-filed. To integrate the operational functionality of the material data filing, processing, and transfer, a computerized local/remote Intranet network management system is needed. This system should standardize the data entry procedures, define performance evaluation measures, certify material test data, analyze the relationships between testing data and actual material performance, streamline the project closeout process, and generate summary reports. It will also be able to communicate with other NJDOT information systems, such as Pavement Management Information System (PMIS). RESEARCH SCOPE Currently, there are more than 110 forms, reports, memos, and labels and cards in use. Many of these forms have the same usage with different layouts. Each one of them has to be filed manually. It is a very time consuming and labor intensive process. Also, the transfer of these documents among related units of NJDOT causes delays in decision making. A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) will streamline and simplify the entire filing procedure

of the Bureau of Materials, thus relevant information will be integrated into an electronic data processing and management system automatically. The design and the development of the LIMS system require considerable research efforts. The major study topics included: (1) How to identify and synthesize the operational logic and business rules in the material testing processes so as to search for the best ways to organize and unify the forms, reports, approvals and all relevant documents; (2) How to normalize the LIMS relational database (SQL) and apply Intranet techniques to secure data integrity and manage data flows within NJDOT existing networks; (3) How to convert and integrate the existing OIT electronic data for concrete cylinders; (4) How to handle data approvals and notification of approvals to appropriate users; (5) How to protect and archive the data; (6) How to accommodate both Metric and English units; (7) How to improve the system flexibility such that new materials and new information can be inserted; (8) How to minimize the data entry errors through cross checking; (9) How to minimize the routine workload and improve the efficiency of the data processing with customized client application programs; and (10) How to automate the filing processes and speed-up the closeout procedures by scheduled replication tasks and alert message service of the SQL server. In other words, the entire closeout procedure will be monitored by the system and the responsible person will be notified of the current project status. The LIMS system to support the following features: Registration integrity of material samples, products, customer and vendor specifications Multilevel limit checking for specification limits, warning limits, outer limits, and user defined limits Automatic calculations of compliance, penalties, etc. Automatic approval/validation of testing results Conditional event triggers and automatic electronic mail for testing results Incorporate penalty/bonus adjustments to project expenses Generation of summary reports Metric/English units conversion

Bar-code reading support and label printing Direct data downloading from nuclear gauge and concrete compression testing machines Instrument Maintenance/Calibration scheduling & recording Once fully developed, production version of LIMS will connect 20 field offices, 3 regional offices, and the central office in Trenton to transfer information, try trial material samples, and periodically replicate the material database. During pilot scale evaluation period, both the current paper-based filing system and the electronic intranet-based LIMS will work side-by-side as co-existing systems. Eventually, LIMS will replace the current system. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION The table 1 shown below gives the choices of servers, operating systems and databases that were considered for LIMS. Table 1 System Choices for LIMS SERVERS OPERATING SYSTEMS DATA BASES Intel Windows NT SQL MIPS UNIX ORACLE Dec Alpha OS/2 DB2 Intel chip was selected to minimize the hardware cost, Windows NT operating system was selected due to high security and compatibility with other Microsoft software and SQL database was selected due to the ability to develop graphical interfaces using Visual Basic. The system was installed on NJDOT a primary domain controller (PDC) running Windows NT with SQL server. With the production version of the system it is expected to connect to three backup domain controllers (BDC) located at three regional offices. Computers running Windows 2000 in field offices were connected to the PDC via a 56K.V90 modem pool and digital subscriber line (DSL). Figure 1 shows the computer configuration when the system is fully implemented. The PCD and BDC have the capabilities of disk duplexing and tape backup support to maximize the reliability and fault tolerance of the network. In order to manage the vast amount of data, protocols will be developed to archive the data older than a specific time of five years. The Microsoft SQL server version 7.0 with reduced administrative overhead was used to create LIMS database. Many server configuration options have been simplified in SQL version 7.0. For example, a database increases allocated resources when necessary without ever committing them and decreases the resources used when they are no longer needed. The SQL 7.0

databases now reside on operating system files instead of on SQL Server logical devices. Database files can expand automatically, eliminating the need for administrators to make manual adjustment of these settings. NT Backup Server Regional Office North Region Backup Server for the project North Region WS for the project NT Workstations in the Field Offices Field Office WS for the Project Figure 1 Final Network Configuration for LIMS SQL Server 7.0 works with Windows NT Workstation as well as Windows NT server. The SQL version 7.0 accessed using Windows 95/98 is fully featured except for a few limitations imposed by the operating system. For example, SMP, named pipes, full-text search, asynchronous I/O, and integrated security are not supported on Windows 95/98. However, this did not hinder the LIMS performance as the system design avoided these limitations. In addition, SQL Server provides a host of new features for data warehousing. Summarized information can be stored in data warehouses for analytical applications to use conveniently. Furthermore, Microsoft English Query development tool gives users the ability to query a SQL Server database in natural language (English). Users can obtain information about particular

tables, fields, and data in the SQL database without having to know how to write query statements. IMPLEMENTATION In order for proper implementation a mission statement was developed, based on which the LIMS was formulated. It is given below. To provide a system to create and gather material related business and test information on NJDOT material bureau personnel and facilities; contracts and awards; contractors, suppliers, producers and plants; product mix design; production quality control; field sampling operation as well as laboratory test results via Intranet of NJDOT. Also this system should be able to analyze and generate reports based on their collected information and maintain all relevant data documents in a SQL server database. Ideally, this system should facilitate the management of material testing and project close out process via secured, user-friendly WebPages and VB 6.0 user graphical interfaces. NJDOT LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) is an integrated Material Laboratory Testing Result Report System that was developed for Bureau of Materials, NJDOT. This system consists of three major components: a. MS SQL database b. Administrative Management Interface for Access Application c. Database-driven web application. These three parts composed of an Internet/Intranet Web Application with which users can create reports, store testing results, retrieve, display, and transfer information among NJDOT Materials Bureau and Region as well as field offices through NJDOT network. SQL Database: The SQL database provides all administrative information about projects, contractors, suppliers, material mix designs, personnel, laboratories, and field offices. The system administrator of NJDOT LIMS with the Administrative Management Interface inputs all administrative information. The Administrative Management Interface is an Access 2000 application, named Lims_2000_Admin.mdb. This application has functional data entry/retrieval forms linked to the SQL database. Using these forms at the supervisor level, the system administrator can initialize specific records on projects, contractors, and suppliers; enter material mix design data, and enter User ID for authorized users.

Administrative Management Interface: The Main Menu of the Administrative Management Interface provides access to the main program functions and information on up-to-date system data. Figure 2 shows this main menu where the user directed to the appropriate administrative function. The functions included in this application are: Edit/Review Project General Information Provides information on Projects, Contractors, and Suppliers/Producers. Edit/Review Personnel Information Provides information on Groups, Regions, Field Offices, and Personnel. Edit/Review Material Information Provides information on Mix Designs. Edit/Review Other Administrative Tasks Provides information on Forms, Reports, and Serial Numbers. Edit/Review Lab Reports This area is currently underdevelopment. Exit Exit from administration application. Figure 2. The Main Menu for LIMS Administration Database

Edit/Review Project General Information: The Project General Information function menu has three sub-options: Projects, Contractors, and Suppliers/Producers. The Projects screen is the default screen when entering into the Project General Information section. The Project General Information function includes information on Projects, Contractors, Suppliers/Producers, or can exit the Project General Information section. Projects: The Projects information screen allows administrators to enter general project information into corresponding data fields, which includes Project Title, DP number, UPC number, Project Federal ID, Project Start Date and Close Out Date. Administrators can also select the Data Units (English or Metric scale) to be used for this project, the region, contractor and Resident Engineer from the Region ID, Contractor ID and names of resident engineers lists. Contractors: The Contractors information screen allows administrators to view contractor specific information, add a new contractor, delete a contractor, or edit current contractor information. The contractor information saved here will be available as a selection list of Contractor Title on the Projects information screen in order to assign a specific contractor to projects. Suppliers/Producers: The Suppliers/Producers information screen allows administrators to view supplier/producer specific information, add a new supplier/producer, delete a supplier/producer, or edit current supplier/producer information. The supplier/producer information saved here will be available as a Concrete Supplier selection list on the Mix Design information screen in order to assign a specific supplier/producer to mix design materials. The Add/Edit Plant Location button on the screen allows the administrator to add or edit plant locations for suppliers/producers with multiple plant locations. Edit/Review Personnel Information: The Personnel Information section is for administrating LIMS systems user information. The five sub-options are Groups; Field Offices; Regions; Personnel and Exit. The Groups screen is the default one when entering into the Personnel Information. User can enter the appropriate page on Groups, Field Offices, Regions, Personnel, or exit the Personnel Information section. The option will be highlighted in green when the information is displayed. Groups: There are three user groups in LIMS system Administrators, Supervisors, and Owners. Utilizing these three available user groups LIMS systems will administer security by granting different levels of access to users. For security reasons the information in the Groups screen is read-only and cannot be edited.

Field Offices: The Field Offices screen allows the administrators to manage field office information by assigning each field office a unique Office ID. An Office ID is a two-digit ID with the first digit representing area (0 Trenton; 1 North; 2 Central; 3 - South) and the second digit representing office number. For example, Bureau of Materials, Trenton will be assigned Office ID of 00, and the 3 rd field office in northern area will be assigned Office ID of 13. Regions: The Regions screen allows the administrators to manage region information by assigning each region a unique Region ID. A Region ID is a one-digit ID representing area (0 Trenton; 1 North; 2 Central; 3 - South). Personnel: The Personnel information screen allows administrators to view employee specific information, add a new employee, delete an employee, or edit existing employee information. The employee information saved here will be available as a selection list of Resident Engineer on the Projects information screen in order to assign a specific resident engineer to projects. This information will also be used to determine information accessible when logging onto the web based report system. The LIMS closeout forms need to have a special record for the NJDOT commissioner in personnel table in order to perform closeout procedure. For this special record, the Title field entry must be NJDOT Commissioner. Edit/Review Material Information: The Edit/Review Material Information section displays the selection windows for user to view Concrete mix designs and Soil material information, respectively. Once the SUPER PAVE mix data are available, asphalt mix design information will be added. Concrete: Selecting Concrete button will open the Mix Design Board screen. This Mix Design Board screen allows administrators to enter additional information about each Mix Design. For the concrete mix designs the existing database based on FoxPro was imported to SQL database. Therefore, once the mix design ID is entered, all the fields in the form used for the concrete cylinder test become available. Soil: Selecting Soil button will open the frmsoil_general screen. This screen allows administrators to enter or modify Soil Type and Soil Gradation information. Also, it allows specifying soil material supplier/producer information by the Soil Suppliers sub-form in the same way as the suppliers/producers sub-form in frmproject_general form.

Edit/Preview Other Administrative Tasks: The Other Administrative Tasks section allows administrators to manage additional information of LIMS system including options of adding and editing forms, reports and serial numbers. Edit/Review Form List: This interface is for adding and editing Form ID, Approved Date, Form Title, Purpose, and corresponding ASP file name. Edit/Review Report List: Report Number is either generated in the procedure of web application processing or added by administrators from this interface. A Report Numbers is consisted of Form ID, DP Number, Report Date, and some other unique identifiers. For concrete cylinders, a report number is consisted of Form Id, DP Number, Report Date, Lot number and Class of concrete. Review Serial Number List: A Serial Number is automatically generated for each project in the web application processing procedure. Each Serial Number is unique. Edit/Preview Lab. Reports: This interface is under development. It is the place for administrator to generate customized reports such as producer/contractor performance evaluation sheets and project quality control summary reports. Exit: Exit LIMS Administration system. Based on the initialized information, authorized users can logon to the NJDOT LIMS web application through Internet/Intranet network. The Web Application produces dynamic web pages to enter and display testing results safely and swiftly from field offices and Regional/Trenton labs. It is expected to achieve significant time and effort savings in paperfiling process and improve the efficiency of the entire material testing result report system when the NJDOT LIMS application is utilized. LIMS Intranet Application: The LIMS data entry is central to all samples no matter whether of raw material, in process, intermediate, or finished product. By LIMS design, the data entry can be done manually (basic information initialization), automatically (calculated and transferred results), or be triggered (data downloading) by other device. Each sampling process has its own logical life from beginning to the end. All data entry forms in LIMS will be created according to their sampling logic and unified by their virtual usage. It is the

integrated design of the sampling cycles that makes LIMS a flexible and reliable information management system. After initiating a material test, appropriate sampling template form is filled by inspectors with the basic information such as project ID, job number, material type, testing date, location, producer, customer, inspectors and operators. This basic information needs to be entered into LIMS only once and can be automatically pulled up as part of any sampling forms in the future. The laboratory supervisors outline the tests to be completed and field engineers and sampling workers will correspondingly generate specific worksheets and will fill the necessary information after samples were taken for testing. Each sample is uniquely coded for identification using a user defined sample ID number as discussed before. Using this information, all relevant data about the sample can be retrieved at any stage of the sampling process from any location in the system provided the user has the required authority. The sample-taking process is accomplished when the worksheets are returned to the local laboratory and the identification information has been entered into LIMS database. Then samples are tested at a local laboratory or sent to the central laboratory in Trenton with labels. Since all the sampling ID information has been input into the system, the labs can popup the required testing result form from a computer screen based on the label received and complete the form with the tested results. LIMS will automatically check the specific limits and calculate the results so as to generate Pass/Fail reports, and will calculate the pay factors. If all results pass specification, LIMS will recommend a sample completion status of Complies. Comments are entered in the event that a Conditional Approval status is assigned to a sample. Once a report is generated, the local and central labs as well as other units of NJDOT will be able to use them for further analysis. Finally, all the sampling data are secured in the relational SQL database with integrity for reliable and flexible retrieval and application. Figure 3 shows a flow chart linking all major components of LIMS. The business information including suppliers, producers and NJDOT administrators (password and organizational/approval status) is in the LIMS administrative portion of the database. All the material information is in the SQL database, listed in the figure as master file. Either the field office or the Trenton office generates the web-based information to LIMS by initiating the

BUSINESS INFORMATION NJDOT ADMINISTRATORS CONTRACTOR SUPPLIER & PRODUCER MATERIALS MASTER FILE DESIGN MIX RELATED FORM FIELD TEST NJDOT FIELD OFFICE & TRENTON OFFICE LABORATORY TEST No REDO? Yes No TEST PASSED? Yes PAY THE SUPPLIER NJDOT Close Out Figure 3 A Flow Chart linking Components of LIMS

material testing. The person who creates forms for material test will select the appropriate form number and if needed calls the mix design information. Then the project/contractor specific data and data from field test/sampling and laboratory test information are added. If the laboratory test complies with the specification the supplier/producer is paid. The payment can be contractspecified amount or that plus a bonus or that minus a penalty based on the comparison of test results with the specifications. If not re-testing is performed. This may involve modification of mix designs. Once all testing is completed it is time for close out process. LIMS will generate the close out package including the close out letter required by the FHWA. Figure 4 Entrance to NJDOT Intranet LIMS Figure 4 shows the entrance to NJDOT Intranet portion of LIMS, where one needs to click on the picture or the caption to enter into the LIMS Applications. Please note that with the above

click user information is recorded in LIMS Application. This information will be used later for user recognition. And to assign appropriate approval/access levels. The main selection board of LIMS will be available at this time. LIMS Main Selection Board: The Report Form Selection Board provides ability to retrieve existing reports or add new reports to LIMS system. Upon entering into the selection board, user specific information such as Group ID, User ID, and Lab/Office location are retrieved and displayed on the form. This information will allow the system to determine the access level for the user. Based on the Group ID, the system will correspondingly enable or disable data entry fields to prevent from unauthorized data modification. Specific group access rights for each Group ID are: Members of Adm. Group can read, create, and edit all project information. Members of Sup. Group can read all projects and create/edit local project information. Members of Tech Group can read all projects, can create information related to their own projects and can edit previous information they supplied on their own projects. Please note that the above are the default access levels, however, once a form is signed by their supervisor that form can not be edited by the owner or someone in that group. Retrieving an Existing Report for Reviewing or Editing: A previously saved report can be retrieved for reviewing, editing, approving, and printing. The procedure for such action is given below. 1. Select a Project DP number from the Project DP dropdown list. The project description will be displayed next to the Project DP number. The Project DP numbers are entered in the LIMS Administration Database by the administrators. 2. Select the appropriate form number from the Form ID dropdown list. The form description is displayed next to the form number. 3. Selecting existing reports will display in the dropdown list all available reports. If the project is new with no reports, (No Reports Found) will be displayed. 4. One can select the required report from the dropdown list for Report No. Select the Open Report button to view the report. 5. Select Existing button to refresh screen after change selections of DP number or Form ID.

Report Number Suffix in the parenthesis at the end of the report number represents the approval status shown in table 2. Table 2 approval status of laboratory test reports. Report Number Suffix (NA) FTS FRS RTS RRS CTS CRS Signature Status No one signed Field Lab. Tester(s) signed Field Lab. Supervisor signed Region Lab. Tester(s) signed Region Lab. Supervisor signed Trenton Lab. Tester(s) signed Trenton Lab. Supervisor signed Adding a New Report: To add a new report to LIMS system the procedure given below should be followed. 1. Select a Project DP number from the Project DP dropdown list. The project description will be displayed next to the Project DP number. 2. Select the appropriate form number from the Form ID dropdown list. The form description will be displayed next to the Form number. 3. Select "New" button to refresh the screen and/or to show the required form. 4. For concrete cylinders select a Mix design ID from the Mix ID dropdown list. The description mix description will be displayed next to the Mix ID. 5. Select "New" button to refresh the screen after selection of DP number, Form ID, or Mix ID. 6. Select "New" button to refresh the screen. This will save all the entered data. The pilot scale LIMS currently contains all the forms for following three major construction materials plus the closeout forms required by FHWA: Concrete (cylinders, cores and beams) Soils Asphalt Cement Concrete: Based on tonnage used, the fresh concrete is the highest consumed material for NJDOT. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing the procedure for testing concrete cylinders. It is a flow chart for implementation with the pay factors for not achieving the specified concrete strength values. The other research issues incorporated in the database include the security of the system. A simplified graphical version of the sequence of events that occur with approvals in Figure 5 is shown in Figure 6. Once an NJDOT employee logon into the system based on the

username (name, position and location of the user) the system will assign the read, write, edit and delete privileges. For instance a technician entering raw data in a field office can only modify the data entered in that office. Once his or her supervisor approves the data no one is allowed to edit, modify or delete. Essentially the above flow chart was logically implemented in LIMS and the following section provides the details. PCC ACCEPTANCE PROCEDURE Initial Tests Pay Adjustment Items No Any Test Below Retest Limits No PPA=0 Yes PD>=50 No Yes Compare PPA, Using Initial Test Results Upon Approval Contractor Has Option to Core at His Expense No Yes State Elects to Core Yes Compute PPA, Using Core Results Cores? No Yes Remove and Replace Lot? Yes Require Removal and Replacement? State Has Option To: (1) Require Removal and Replacement (2) Accept Lot and Compute PPA with Equation No.2 (3) Allow Contractor to Submit Plan for Corrective Action. (1) No Which Options Does State Select? (3) Corrective Action Plan Acceptable? No (2) Yes Contractor Accepts Pay Reduction? PD>=75? No Compute PPA Using Core Results? Yes Compute PPA with Equation No. 2 No Yes PPA is Negotiated Compute Pay Adjustment Figure 5 shows the flow chart for implementation for concrete cylinder tests. The NJDOT LB201-CY form includes information on Portland Cement Concrete Cylinder inspection and testing results. LB201-CY Report ID consists of Form ID (LB-201-CY), DP Number, Report Date, Lot Number and Class, and Version Number. Table 3 illustrates how the Report ID is constructed to produce a unique ID for the database. Hence the report ID will appear as: Form(LB-201-CY)_DP(11111111)_RptDate(10/12/2000)_12A_R0.

There are four sub-forms for an LB201-CY report as described below: Sampling label and Working sheet Identification ID Local Lab Field Field Central Lab Approval Document - Basic information LB-201 form : (Testing results) : Identification ID Sample label SQL Database LB-201 form : Testing results : Pass/Fail : Identification ID Figure 6-The schematic diagram showing the implementation for concrete cylinder tests. Table 3. Components of LB201-CY report ID for a unique database ID Field Name Sample Value Form ID LB-201-CY Project DP Number 11111111 Report Date 10/12/2000 Lot Number 12 Class of Concrete A Report Status Original Version 0 (default) General Information This is the default screen to display when retrieving an existing or adding a new form. This form displays general information of a report including Repot Unit (Metric or English), Report Version (Original or Revised), etc. Field Office Form This form display test results entered by field office. Here users need to identify either Trenton Lab. Or Region Lab. where the subsequent testing will take place. Based upon this selection A Region Lab. Form or Trenton Lab. Form will be generated.

Region Lab. or Trenton Lab. Form This form displays test results made by region laboratory or by Trenton lab. Full Report Review This form displays all the information from the above three forms for review. A printer-friendly version for printing purpose is also available with the full report review. Hyperlinks to Main Selection Board and to each of the sub-forms are available at the top of screens for easy navigation. However, since data entry should be done in a logical order, there are no links to other sub-forms when a new report is created. Figure 6: LB201-CY General Information LB201-CY General Information: LB201-CY general Information is the default form when reviewing an existing report or creating a new report. The administrator for the project has predefined units (Metric or English) to be used in this form from LIMS administration database. These units will be retrieved from the database and displayed at the bottom of this form. All reports for this project must be entered using the predefined units. The version number of this report (original or revised) is also displayed at the bottom of this form. Figure 7 shows a copy of this form. The grayed out fields are retrieved from LIMS administration database, and cannot be

edited. To add or edit the project information, one needs to contact the LIMS administrator. The symbol (+) denotes necessary fields to save this report into the system. LB201-CY Full Report Review: LB201-CY Full Report Preview will display all information and printed version is identical current paper filled version. The report status and report version are also displayed on the full report review. The following rules determine the above: If the original report is the most current report and no revision were made, ORIGINAL will be displayed on the full report review. Once the test results sub forms have been revised and signed by the Trenton Lab reviewers, COMPLETE will be displayed on the full report review. If only one revision is made to the original report: 1. VOID-R0 will be displayed on the full report review for the original report. 2. REVISED-R1 will be displayed on the full report review for the revised report indicating that the 1 st revision is the most current version. If a second revision is made to the 1 st revision: 1. VOID-R0 will be displayed on the full report review for the original report. 2. VOID-R1 will be displayed on the full report review for the 1 st revised report. 3. REVISED-R2 will be displayed on the full report review for the 2 nd revised report indicating that the 2 nd revision is the most current version. Soils: The LB-269 form includes information on Soils inspection and testing results. It will be later used to generate the summary report for soils (LB-135). LB-269 Report ID consists of Form ID (LB-269), DP Number, Report Date, Soil Type and Sample Number. The table 4 illustrates how the Report ID is constructed. Table 4. Table 4. Components of LB-269 report ID for a unique database ID Field Name Sample Value Form ID LB-269 Project DP Number 88888888 Report Date 4/2/2002 Soil/Agg Type I-3 Sample Number 201 The aggregated Report ID will appear as: Form (LB-269)_DP (88888888)_RptDate (4/2/2002)_AggType (I-3)_SampleNo (201)

There are three sub-forms for an LB-269 report as following: General Information This is the default screen to display when retrieving an existing or adding a new report. This form displays general information of a report and a portion of the soil test fields. Region Lab Test Form This form display test results made by field office or the region office laboratory. The test results are shown automatically after all the required fields have been filled. Full Report Review This form displays all the information from the above two forms for reviewing purpose. A printer-friendly version for printing purpose is also available with full report review. Based on LB-269 forms LB-135 summary report is generated at the end of each week for all soil types for a given project. The data for the report is retrieved from the LB-269 form and summarized by the project (DP Number), Soil Type and the week ending date. To generate LB- 135 report, user can select the DP Number and the Form LB-135 on the Main Selection Board page. Selecting the New button will create a new report that will allow user to open LB-135 Report Selection page. 1) Enter the date for which the weekly reports are needed. (The date can be any day of the week for which the week ending report has to be generated) 2) Choose the soil type from the dropdown menu or choose the All option The All option will generate reports for all soil types for the requested week. 3) Selecting Submit button will generate weekly report(s) Asphalt: The LB-68 form for asphalt includes information on layer thickness, specific gravity and void content of bituminous concrete cores. LB68 Report ID consists of Form ID (LB-68), DP Number, Report Date, Lot Number, Lift, Type and the Revision Number. Table 5 illustrates how the Report ID is constructed. The aggregated Report ID will appear as: Form (LB-68)_DP(11111111)_RptDate(1/1/2000)_LotNo(10)_Lift(S)_Type(OS)_R2. There are three sub-forms for a LB-68 report as shown below: General Information This is the default screen to display when retrieving an existing or adding a new form. This form displays general information of a report including Repot Unit (Metric or English), Report Version (Original or Revised), etc. Trenton Lab. Form This form display test results performed by Trenton lab.

Summary Sheet This form displays the summary information of the specific sample highlighting the specification that the sample failed to meet. A print version of this form displays the information from the above for printing purposes. Table 5. Components of LB-68 report ID for a unique database ID Field Name Sample Value Form ID LB-68 Project DP Number 11111111 Report Date 10/12/2000 Lot Number 12 Lift S Type OS Revision Number R1 Based on LB-68 form LB-68 Summary Sheet Form is generated. The summary sheet consists of summarized information of a test sample as well as the testing criteria for validating the sample. The form has a set of radio buttons to select the appropriate formula that is used to calculate the compliance with specifications. The form also has a set of radio buttons to indicate compliance or noncompliance. When the form is saved, the compliance and the formula applied to check compliance are stored in the database. The selected radio buttons of formula and non-compliance must be compatible with each other. If not, LIMS will prompt the user a wrong or mismatched selection message. Then the user can re-select choices by selecting the appropriate formula and non-compliance radio buttons. The next step would be to enter the values in the constants, C1 and C2 fields to calculate the PPAv depending on the PDTotal. Again the fields entered have to correspond to the selected radio buttons of formula and non-compliance. If not, LIMS will prompt the user a non-compatibility message. Closeout Forms: All the required forms for the purpose of closeout have been incorporated into the LIMS System. This feature will help users to process closeout of projects effectively and efficiently. Only administrators are authorized to create closeout forms. However, supervisors are authorized to create LB-23 form, which contains soil information. All other users may open, view, and print the closeout forms. In order to activate the closeout procedure following steps are taken:

After login to LIMS System, select the Project DP from the dropdown list in Main Selection Board. Selecting Existing button will initiate Closeout Forms option. The closeout procedure triggers a series of actions, which includes a list of material failures and action taken. This will be attached to a computer generated closeout letter as shown in figure 8 to be sent to FHWA. Using LIMS administrators can also create other related operational reports and business memos, whenever the required information or data is available in LIMS. LIMS can provide the capabilities of customized data querying, standardized report generation as well as comprehensive graphics utility to display result trends. Figure 8 Copy of computer generated close out letter. Due to the security concerns, LIMS is not available to general public or to other DOTs for viewing but a working version of the internet based LIMS is installed at NJIT and can be

accessed as transportation.njit.edu/njdot_lims/default.htm. Please use username "LIMS" and password "NJIT" to login (case sensitive). User is assigned supervisor statues so forms could be generated, edited, approved and deleted. SUMMARY AND CONCULSIONS Currently, most state DOT material test results are applied on a micro scale and paper-filed. Each lot is assessed separately for compliance, penalties, etc. All the test result reports are manually generated, distributed, and filed away individually. The filing processes of approving projects, preparing material test result reports, and searching relevant closeout paperdocuments are quite labor intensive and time-consuming. An intranet-based electronic filing system was developed to replace the current paper-based filing system. In order for proper implementation a mission statement was developed, based on which the proposed system was formulated. This system consists of three major components database; administrative management interface and database-driven web application. The input to the SQL database is through either administrative management interface or database-driven web application. The administrative management interface provides access to the main program functions and information on up-to-date system data. The functions included in this application are general project information; personnel information; material information and other administrative tasks such as edit/review lab reports. The pilot scale database-driven web application of LIMS currently contains all the forms for three major construction materials plus the closeout forms required by FHWA. LIMS is currently being evaluated by NJDOT and will be accepted shortly as a pilot version for implementation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS New Jersey Department of Transportation and National Center for Transportation (NCTIP) and Industrial Productivity jointly sponsored this research. The program manager at NJDOT is Mr. Robert Sasor and for NCTIP is Dr. Lazar Spasovic. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of NJIT, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, or the Federal Highway Administration. This paper is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. Also this paper does not constitute a standard, specification or regulation. Authors would also like to acknowledge the NJDOT task force headed by Ms. Eileen Connolly and Mr. John Zim. Authors also would like to acknowledge the contributions of M. Dorsch, J. Gerbino, N. Alfano, P. Sopronyi and J. Merlo of NJDOT as well as NJIT graduate students, Y. Zhang, S. Pinto and A. Tang.