89-East 42".

0 Street 

New York, NY 1001 7 

718.725.2622 Tel 

- 21 78-4785 Fax 

Patrick A. Nowakowski 

President 

a Long Island Rail Road 

December 15, 2016 

VIA UPS AND EMAIL 

Ms. Sarah E. Feinberg, FRA Administrator 

Federal Railroad Administration 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

Attn: FRA Legal Department 

1200 New Jersey A venue, S.E. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

Dennis L. Mahon 

Chief Procurement & Logistics Officer 

Re: Withdrawal of Request for a Buy America Waiver for 

Low Cost Materials Related to Catenary System 

MTA LIRR North East Corridor, Congestion Relief Project 

Dear Administrator Feinberg: 

I write regarding the Buy America waiver request submitted by The Long Island Rail Road Company 

("LIRR"), a public benefit corporation of the State of New York and subsidiary of the Metropolitan 

Transportation Authority, dated May 25, 2016 (the "Waiver Request"). 

As you may recall, LIRR sought a non-availability waiver of the Buy America requirements set forth 

at 49 U.S.C §24405(a) from the Federal Railroad Administration ("FRA") to support the procurement 

of two low cost items for the LIRR North East Corridor Congestion Relief Project at Harold 

Interlocking (the "Project"), which would support Amtrak's two new conflict-free, grade-separated 

routes (the Westbound By-Pass and Eastbound Reroute through Harold Interlocking for Amtrak's 

north-south bound service new interlockings). Other elements to be constructed include new catenary 

foundations and catenary structural steel frames, new tracks, bridges, signals and retaining walls. Upon 

completion of the Project, the new construction will provide a critical link between Boston and New 

York for Amtrak's northeast corridor service to New York Penn Station. 

LIRR has conducted further review and analyses of the technical specifications for the Project, 

consulted with Amtrak and reviewed a schematic of a signal system from the United States Department 

of Transportation ("DOT") and the FRA, which included a signal system broken out into components 

and subcomponents. For its review, LIRR used the signal system example produced by the DOT and 

the FRA. Performing an analogous comparison of the signal system example and the catenary system 

in question, LIRR has concluded that the conical coupling and high speed section insulator are lesser 

components of the catenary system and therefore deemed subcomponents of the Amtrak Rail Network. 

As such, Buy America does not apply to the procurement of such subcomponents. 

Based upon the foregoing, LIRR hereby withdraws its Waiver Request for the Harold Interlocking 

Project previously submitted to the FRA for consideration. 
Ms. Sarah E. Fe inberg 

FRA Administrator 

December 13, 2016 

Page 2 

Should you have any questions or require additional information, please feel free to contact me at (718) 

725-2622. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Thomas Cisar 

Long Island Rail Road 

Manager-Procurement East Side Access 

cc: Farhan F. Haddad, NYSDOT 

Adam Denton, FRA 

Whitney Phend, FRA 

John Johnson, FRA 

Victor Simmuli, MT ACC 

James Descalso, MTACC 

Kimberly Luckey- Witsell, LIRR 

William Goodrich, MT ACC 

Evan Eis land, MT ACC