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

Refer to: HOTO-1
September 9, 2000

Mr. Adolfo Lucero
Deputy Secretary for Highway Operations
New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department
P.O. Box 1149
Santa Fe, NM 87504-1149

Dear Mr. Lucero:

Thank you for your letter of August 23 to the former Acting Director Jeffrey A. Lindley of the Office of Transportation Operations (HOTO-1), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Washington, DC. In your letter, you expanded on your previously proposed evaluation plan submitted March 6 for an Experimental Project to Use "Idaho Shields" at Railroad Crossing.

We find the additional information acceptable and approve your request. Note that the Evaluation Procedure should provide for close monitoring of the experimentation, especially in the early stages of the field implementation. The length of Experimentation over a three-year period in acknowledged. Please provide semiannual progress reports for the duration of the experimentation. A copy of the final results is due within 3 months following completion of the experiment. Send these documents to the FHWA Office of Transportation Operations (HOTO-1).

For reference purposes, we have assigned your request the following official experimentation number and title: "VII-56(E)- Idaho Shield with Yield Sign." Please refer to this number in future correspondence.

Sincerely yours,

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