Bahrain's Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning has inspected over 2,763 building material samples during the first quarter of 2017 as part of its efforts to improve the quality of construction materials in the kingdom.

The materials, which are tested physically and chemically in the labs of the ministry's Building Materials Directorate, include all kinds of concrete materials and their components such as cement, water, sand, aggregate and admixtures, in addition to asphalt and its components like rubble, bitumen and polymers, said the statement from the ministry.

The sand that is used for construction purposes is also tested, and so are materials used for finishing purposes like tiles and paints, it stated.

The directorate regularly and also randomly sends a specialised team of engineers and technicians to construction sites and to concrete and brick companies to take samples based on a pre-determined time schedule, where such samples are tested in the internationally accredited labs of the Building Materials Directorate, which are granted the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 Certificate.

The testing of materials is not only limited to those sent by staff in the directorate, but can also be submitted via the electronic material testing service, which is available on both the ministry’s portals (www.works.gov.bh and the eGovernment portal bahrain.bh), said the statement.
 
The team in charge also analyses the results and issues monthly reports that evaluate factories’ performance.

In case any sample does not conform to the approved and accredited specifications, the team members immediately visit these factories to ascertain the cause and take necessary remedial steps, it added.-TradeArabia News Service