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                Safety Eligibility Letter SS-38A
  
  **Hardware Type:**
            Sign Supports, Mailboxes, and Delineator Posts
                          **Code:**
            SS-38A
                          **Date:**
            10/22/1997
                          **Testing Criteria:**
            NCHRP 350
                          **Manufacturer:**
            Xcessories Squared
                          **Device Description:**
            Reference Xcessories Squared as the Manufacturer
                          **View PDF:**
            ss38a.pdf (84.56 KB)
    
    United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration

October 22, 1997

Refer to: HNG-14/SS-38A

Mr. Lawrence E. Leahy
President
Xcessories Squared
P.O. Box 135
Auburn, Illinois 62615

Dear Mr. Leahy:

This is in response to your September 3 letter to Mr. Nicholas Artimovich requesting that we rewrite our February 8, 1995, (SS-52) and May 15, 1995, letters regarding Xcessories Squared slip bases for square steel tube sign supports. They were initially written to Mr. Nick Calvi of Allied Highway Sales, who no longer is affiliated with your product. In a telephone conversation with Mr. Artimovich on September 22, you requested that the Federal Highway Administration take some action to make it clear that it was your company's three-bolt slip base design that was the subject of the above letters.

We are reluctant to rewrite the letters using the same date while changing the address to that of Xcessories Squared as this may cause confusion among users. We trust that the following discussion of the testing and acceptance history of these slip bases will clarify the situation to your customers.

On May 1, 1991, (letter SS-24) we wrote to the Unistrut Corporation finding their triangular slip base acceptable for use with certain perforated square steel tube sign supports. Unique features of this three-bolt slip base were the Teflon keeper plate and the stainless steel bushings around the attachment bolts. On October 27, 1993, (letter SS-38) we modified the acceptance to permit the use of a cast iron assembly rather than the fabricated steel design. A notation regarding the use of this device indicated that the Teflon keeper and the bushings reduced friction to such a degree that additional crash testing was not deemed necessary.

On January 11, 1995, Mr. Calvi of Allied Highway Sales requested our acceptance of a triangular three-bolt slip base, which looked very similar to the accepted Unistrut design, with the option of a galvanized keeper plate in lieu of the Teflon keeper. We were not informed that the design acceptance requested by Mr. Calvi was for the same design submitted by Unistrut and, as you have told us, produced by Xcessories Squared. Our comment on the design submitted by Mr. Calvi was that the option he requested of using a galvanized keeper plate was not acceptable, since only the Teflon keeper had been tested. This was contained in our letter to him dated February 8, 1995, (ss-52) to which you referred.

To summarize, we now understand that the three bolt slip bases that were the subject of the letters to Unistrut and to Mr. Calvi were all manufactured by Xcessories Squared and those with the accepted Teflon keeper plate were the same.

On July 22, 1996, you requested our acceptance of perforated square steel tube sign supports using the Xcessories triangular slip base with a winged anchor soil plate on the stub embedded in standard soil. We responded on September 18, 1996, with acceptance letter SS-68.

Let it be known, therefore, that the three-bolt slip base hardware referenced in the two letters to Mr. Calvi of Allied Highway Sales, dated February 8, 1995, and May 15, 1995, did indeed, concern hardware manufactured by Xcessories Squared, Inc. To further clarify the status of the subject Xcessories Squared slip base products, enclosed are copies of drawings of the design found acceptable to FHWA and a copy of our listing of acceptance letters citing this letter as supplementing all relevant previous acceptance letters.

All conditions in our previous correspondence remain unaffected.

Sincerely yours,

Dwight A. Horne, Chief
Federal-Aid and Design Division

Enclosures

HNG-14:NArtimovich:366-1331:gm:10-17-97:LLEAHY3
copies to:
HNG-1 HNG-10 HNG-14 Reader, 3128 File, 3128
RAs HFL-1 HHS-1 HRS-1 HNG-20
Ron Stieninger of Allied Tube and Conduit

Supplemental Geometric and Roadside Design Acceptance Letters:
SS-24A, SS-38A, SS-52A, SS-68C

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