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

ACTION: Interpretation of MUTCD 8B.02 (Reference VIII-58(I)

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

Janice W. Brown
Division Administrator (HDA-MT)
Helena, Montana

This is in reply to a December 11, 2001 request for an interpretation of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) regarding Section 8B.02 - Highway-Rail Grade Crossing (Crossbuck) Signs (R15-1, R15-2).

The January 6, 1997 Federal Register notice states, Section 8B-02 would be revised to include standards for the installation of 2" minimum retroreflective white material at all grade crossings for placement on the back of each blade of the crossbuck sign for the length of the blade. At passive grade crossings, a strip of high-grade retroreflective white material would also be required on the full length of the front and back of each "Crossbuck" (R15-1) or "Number of Track" (R15-2) sign support. Figure 8-1 has been modified to reflect this change.

Mr. Rue has asked if the retroreflective material is to be used on the sign supports for both passive and active crossings.

The current MUTCD text (Section 8B.02, second Standard, third paragraph of the December 28, 2001) implies that the reflective material is to be used at all crossbuck supports. This text was included in response to the above-mentioned Federal Register. It is recommended that current use of this material should focus on passive crossings. Within the next Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPA), a revision to Section 8B.02 will propose that this material does not have to be used at active crossings that have flashing lights on both sides of its support. We are expecting comments on Section 8B.02 within this next NPA (which is tentatively to be printed in the Federal Register in March, 2002) that will focus on the use of retroreflective material at passive crossings.

For record-keeping purposes, we have numbered and titled your request as follows: "VIII-58(I) - Retroreflectorized Strip on the Back of Support Posts." Please refer to this number in any further correspondence. If there are any questions, please contact Ms. Debra Chappell at 202-366-0087.