Federal Highway Administration
400 Seventh Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590

August 23, 2002
Refer to: HOTO-1

Mr. Ray Purvis
State Research, Development and Technology Engineer
Missouri Department of Transportation
P.O. Box 270
Jefferson City, MO 65102

Dear Mr. Purvis:

Thank you for your June 17 letter requesting permission to experiment with Remote Control Flagman. We apologize for the delay in responding to your request. All first class mail sent through the United States Postal Service to Federal agencies in the District of Columbia must be processed in a special way to protect government employees from the possibility of handling anthrax-tainted mail. The irradiation process delays delivery by several weeks.

We have reviewed the material that was submitted and found it satisfactory. Therefore, your request to experiment is approved with the following comments:

• Since there is no sign to accurately describe the Remote Control Flagger device, we recommend that the Remote Control Flagger traffic control setup use the "Flagger Ahead" sign at one location and the word message sign "Be Prepared To Stop" at another location. The reason we are recommending the usage of both signs is to get an evaluation of how the public reacts towards both signs.
• We suggest that in addition to the semi-annual and final written reports, the State evaluate and report the Remote Control Flagger experimental project status quarterly to our office. The evaluation of the Remote Control Flagger may consist of user comments, traveling public reaction to the Remote Control Flagger, documented accidents, recorded malfunctions, recorded setup time, and visually monitored traffic flow through the work zone. The reason we are suggesting quarterly reporting is to have readily available data to evaluate the performance of the Remote Control Flagger. If in the future Federal Highway Administration decides to add the Remote Control Flagger to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, there will be readily available data to evaluate instead of waiting on the time consuming final report of the experimentation of the Remote Control Flagger device. In addition, we are very interested in the public reaction to this device.

For reference purposes, we have assigned your request the following official experimentation number and title: 6-103(Ex)—"Remote Control Flagman." Please refer to this number in any future correspondence.

We appreciate the effort that you and your staff have put in developing this evaluation plan and look forward to reviewing your first quarterly report. If you have any questions, please call Mr. Charlie Sears at 202-366-1555.

Sincerely yours,

Shelley J. Row, P.E.
Director, Office of Transportation
Operations