U.S. Deportment of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

May 25, 2005
Refer to: HOTO-l

Mr. Paul Porell
Traffic Engineering Director
City of Scottsdale
744 7 East Indian School Road, Suite 205
Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Dear Mr. Porell:

Thank you for your April 15 letter requesting an official interpretation of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) regarding the orientation of the Airport sign (1-5) when used as a trailblazer sign on the arterial approaches to the Scottsdale Airport.

In MUTCD Section 2A.06, the MUTCD provides the flexibility for State and local agencies to change the orientation of symbols or the layout of word messages. The Airport symbol may be rotated 90 degrees clockwise for a right turn or 90 degrees counterclockwise for a left turn. The orientation of the airport symbol in the direction of the turn may be used in addition to the supplemental arrow plaques that are currently being used for trailblazing.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide this clarification and hope that it helps explain the MUTCD provisions. If you have additional questions, please contact Ms. Linda L. Brown of my staff at 202-366-2192. For recordkeeping purposes, we have assigned the following official ruling number to this interpretation: "2-564(I)-Orientation of Airport Symbol." Please refer to this number in future correspondence.

Sincerely yours,

Regina S. McElroy
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations