U.S. Department 

Of Transportation 

Federal Highway 

Administration

400 Seventh St., S.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 

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, 3212 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