Refer to: HNG-14 

C. Richard Briden, P. E. 

Engineering Manager 

P & K Pole Products 

84 Foundry Street 

Newark, New Jersey 07105 

Dear Mr. Briden: 

This is in response to your December 13, 1989, letter to Hr. Thomas 0. Willett 

requesting acceptance by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of your 

company's aluminum slipbase luminaire support for use on Federal-aid highway 

projects. A test was conducted to assess the compliance of the base with 

FHWA breakaway requirements, which cite Section 7 of the 1985 American 

Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' (AASHTO) Standard 

Specifications for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaires and Traffic 

Signals. You enclosed for our review a Southwest Research Institute report 

(Project No. 06-3116-503), dated November 1989, containing results of the 

pendulum test on an aluminum pole with this base design. Further information, 

including a film of the test, was transmitted with your letters of January 12 

to Mr. Nicholas Artimovich and April 25 to Mr. Willett. 

The test used an instrumented 1,800-pound pendulum fitted with a 10 stage 

crushable nose which simulates the left quarter point of a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit. 

Impact speed was 20 mph. Details of the tested hardware and the measured and 

extrapolated results are summarized below: 

Test No. 

Pole Type 

Pole Bottom Diameter 

Pole Wall Thickness 

Pole Base Bolt Circle 

Slip Base Bolt Circle 

Anchor Bolt Bolt Circle 

Mast Arm Length 

Mounting Height 

Pole, Arm, A Lum. Wt. 

20-mph Test Delta V 

60-mph Calculated Delta V 

Stub Height 

PK-5 

Aluminum, with aluminum shoe base mounted on 

a four bolt aluminum and steel slip base. 

10 inches O.D. 

0.25 inches 

12 inches (up to 15 inches acceptable) 

21 inches (l-inch diameter bolts, lubricated, 

nuts torqued to 150 foot-pounds) 

15 inches 

15 feet 

50 feet 

548.0 pounds 

12.9 f.p.s. 

14.3 f.p.s. 

3.5 inches. 

This information shows that the tested pole-base combination will meet the 

change in velocity and stub-height requirements adopted by the FHWA. 
2 

Thus, your company's aluminum slipbase for IO-inch O.D. supports, with maximum 

support and luminaire weights of 575-pounds and minimum pole wall thicknesses 

of 0.250 inches, when installed as shown on the enclosed drawings, is 

acceptable for use on Federal-aid highway projects, if proposed by a State. 

This acceptance is limited to breakaway characteristics of the base and does 

not cover its structural features. Presumably, you will supply potential 

users with sufficient information on structural design limitations, including 

resistance to torsion and overturning, and on installation requirements to 

ensure proper performance. We anticipate that the States will require 

certification from P A K Pole Products that the bases furnished have 

essentially the same chemistry, mechanical properties, and geometry as the 

base used in the test, and that supports with those bases will meet the FHWA 

breakaway requirements. 

Sincerely yours, 

L. A. Staron 

Chief, Federal-Aid and Design Division 

Enclosures 

Geometric and Roadside Design acceptance letter number LS-13 
.x5 Ol<O2 

M@JrJTlNG HEIGHT 

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ALTERATIONS 
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