May 16, 2002
Refer to: HOTO-1
U.S. Department
of Transportation
Federal Highway
Administration
Mr. John W. Bell
USDA-Forest Service
National Road System Operations
and Maintenance Engineer
1400 Independence Avenue, SW., STOP 1101
Washington DC 20250
Dear Mr. Bell:
Thank you for your e-mail of April 29 requesting experimentation with the color "coral" for use with incident management. We have reviewed your request for experimentation and evaluation plan and approve your request.
The Federal Highway Administration has recognized the need for this issue to be addressed in a future revision to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Your progress reports and final report will provide valuable information on this issue.
For reference purposes, we have assigned your request the following official experimentation number and title: "l-38(E)-USDA-FS Coral Incident Management Traffic Signs." Please refer to this number in future correspondence. In light of the delay in receiving first class mail, you may want to fax a copy of your correspondence directly to us prior to mailing. Our fax number is 202-366-3225.
Good luck with this experimentation. If you have any questions, please call Ms. Cherie L. Kittle at 202-366-2188.
Sincerely yours,
Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations
Below are previous and followup emails pertaining to this subject:
Cherie Kittle - Request for Experimentation
Page 1
From: Cherie Kittle
To: hubsmtp:"jbell01 @fs.fed.us"
Subject: Request for Experimentation
Mr. Bell:
This is in response to your e-mail of April 11 to Ernie Huckaby requesting experimentation with "coral" for incident management. As you know, the use of "coral" for incident management is pending awaiting publication of a Notice of Proposed Amendment to the MUTCD. A final rule adopting the use of this color isn't expected to be published until the Spring or Summer of 2003. Any interim experimentation reports would give us additional information to review when making our final decision on the final approval of the use of "coral".
Please refer to Section 1A.10 of the MUTCD in requesting permission to experiment. The entire MUTCD can be viewed at: http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov. Specifically, please make sure the items A - I in Section IA.10 are addressed in your request/evaluation plan. The experimentation period should be for a minimum of one year.
Please fax me the evaluation plan and all other materials you would like included in the request. My fax number is (202) 366-3225. As you know, all first class mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service to Federal agencies in the District of Columbia must be processed in a special ways to protect government employees from the possibility of handling anthrax-tainted mail. The irradiation process delays delivery by several weeks.
Please contact me if you have further questions regarding Section 1A.10.
Thanks.
Cherie Kittle
Transportation Specialist
Office of Transportation Operations
Federal Highway Administration
400 7th St., S.W.
Washington DC 20590
(202) 366-2188
(202) 366-3225 (FAX)
Part II - followup email from John Bell
Cherie Kittle- Re: Request for Experimentation
Page 1
From: jbell01 @fs.fed.us
To: Cherie
Date: 4/18/02 10:42AM
Subject: Re: Request for Experimentation
Cherie: I'm reading my e-mail in a hotel in Reno. We're having a national sign workshop for the Forest Service. I'll be back in the office next week.
The letter that you have the draft of probably has already been signed by our office and is going through the process somebody designed to protect Federal agencies from each other's mail. (Irradiation)
I'll check MUTCD when I'm back in Monday and pull up the section you referenced. We'll work on it. It's no big deal to hand carry the plan over to your office via Metro. What's your room number in the DOT building?
Regarding length of time of the experiment, we certainly have no problem about this being at least a year. Depending on how much detail is necessary for the plan, I may have to contact Jim Abernathy and Donna Sheehy, who are two of our Regional Sign/Traffic Engineers who will be helping with this effort. In general, we're figuring on having a couple sets of general incident ICP traffic signs in a fire cache to deploy when we have to set up fire suppression operations for a major fire incident, and we're also figuring on equipping a couple of initial attack fire engines with a couple sets of roll up signs to deploy when they arrive and start work on a new fire start along a highway.
I'll be checking in with you next week.
John
John W. Bell, PE
National Road System Operations & Mtce Engr, USDA-FS
Phone - 703-605-4612
FAX - 703-605-1542
E-Mail -jbell01@fs.fed.us
"Kittle,Cherie To: jbell01 @fs.fed.us (IPM Return requested) (Receipt notification
(FHWA)" requested)
cc:
04/18/2002 Subject: Request for Experimentation
07:12 AM