US. Depo 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE rtment 

of Transportation Washington, D.C. 20590 

Fede ral Highway 

Administration May 18. 20 15 

An ope n letter to all in the highv.·ay safety hardware and roadside design community: 

The Federa l Highway Ad mini stra tion (f-HW A) is revis iting its process fo r issu ing Federal-aid 

eli g ibility letters for roadside safe ty hardware sys tems. Thjs letter serves to notify you that 

rl·IWA is implementing some immed iate process improvements as described in thi s letter . These 

changes will enhance the quality of infom1ation received by FHWA when evaluating a request 

lo r an eli gibility determination, clarify the scope and purpose of th e elig ibility lcuers, and 

increase the amou nt of information available regard ing the devices cove red by these letters. 

FHWA may make more significant changes to the process in the future. Effective immedi ately. 

FHWA is implemen ting the following changes to the elig ibility letter process for roadside safe ty 

hardware sys tems: 

• Notificati on of any modifi c<t tion. [f a manufacturer makes a ny mod ificati on to any oftheir 

road side safety hardware that has an exis ting eligibi lity letter from FII WA. the manufacture r 

must notify FHWA or such modifi cation with a req uest for continued eli gibili ty for 

reimbursement. T he no tice of all modificati ons to a device must be acco mpanied by: 

o Significant modifi cations'- For these mod ificat ion s. crash test result s must be 

submitt ed with accompanying documentat ion and videos. 

o Non-s ignificant modiJications - For these modifications. a staterncnl from the 

cras h tes t lab oratory on the potential effect of the mod ifi cat ion on the ability of the 

device to meet the releva nt cras h test criteria. 

• Cla rifica ti on in the eligibili ty letter . FH W A revi sed its e lig ibility letter to include a clear 

s tatement of the scope and purpose of the letter as well as a statement indi ca ting that a 

determination ofeligib ility is not an approval. certifi ca tion or endo rse ment. The lene r also 

specifi es that FJ I W A may modify or revoke the letter if: ( I ) there arc any inaccuracies in the 

information submitted in support of you r request for thi s letter, (2) the quali lication test ing 

was llawed, (3) in-service pe r fonnance or othe r in ronnati on revea ls safety probl ems, (4) the 

sys tem is s ignificantly eli fferent from the version that was crash tes ted, or (5) any other 

info rmatio n indicates that the letter was iss ued in error o r other'vvise does not ref1ect fu ll and 

complete infom1 ati on abo ut the crashworthincss of the sys tem. 

1 A "significan t modification" to a crashwonhy device is one where analysis indicates the device may fai l a testing 

criterion set fonh under provision s ofeither: 

I. Nationa l Coopera ti ve Highwa y Research Program (NC IIRP) Repon 350; or 

2. American Association ofState and ll ighway Tran sponation Omcials (AAS IITO) Manual for Assessing 

Safety Hardware (MAS II). 
2 

• Disclosur·e of financial interest. FHWA will now require disclosure of any fmancial 

interests between the manufacturer seeking an eligibilit y detetmination and both the testing 

facility and certain testing facil ity employees in order to help ensure the integrit y of testing 

and transparency of the process. 

• Add iti onal documentatio n. FHW !\.will post all records received by FHWA regarding 

devices that receive eli gibility lette rs. This includ es submissions from manufacturers and 

disclosure of financial interests . Crash test v ideos will continue to be made avai lable by 

FH WA. FH W A will not post records or portions of records that are subject to a FO IA 

exemption s uch as the exemption for trad e secrets and co mmercial or financial information 

that are privileged or confidential. 

• Documentation of Co mmuni cation s. FHWA will formally document all substantive 

communications with a manufacturer seeking an elig ibility letter. FHWA will impl ement a 

standard operating procedure to handl e communications during the roadside safety hardware 

eligibility process to ens ure tmi fo rmity and transparency. The stand ard ope rating procedure 

will also address how FHWA responds to comments or concerns about a device rai sed after 

an elig ibility letter is issued. 

Thank you in advance for your cooperation in helping FHWA to implement these improvements. 

I think you will agree that they will enhance the safety of roadside safety hardware and increase 

the integrity and transparency ofFHWA's eligibili ty letter detetmination process. We will notify 

you of any futu re improvements to the e li gibil ity Jetter process. For more info rmat ion, please 

see our website for the federal-aid reimbursement eli gibiry process located at 

http://safetv.tll\va.dot.gov/roadwav dept/po licy guid e/road hardware/accep tproc ess/. In the 

near future, we plan to add some new questions and answe rs relative to communication s between 

FHW A and entities seek ing a federal-aid elig ibili ty letter for roads ide hardware and what 

financial interes t information should be disclosed in a request for a lette r. 

If yo u have any questions or comments. please contact Brian Fouch at (202) 366-0744. 

· urst 

Associate Administrator for Safety