AASHTO Journal, 6 March 2015
Six senators called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Federal Highway Administration’s procedures for evaluating the safety of roadside safety products, in the wake of concerns raised in recent months about Trinity Industries’ ET-Plus guardrail end terminals.
Senators signing the March 3 letter to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro are Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both D-Va.
The lawmakers said the FHWA “as the guardian of federal taxpayer dollars, has a unique and vital role and responsibility in ensuring that roadside hardware has been properly vetted for safety purposes and is eligible for reimbursement with federal funds. We write requesting that GAO investigate the current framework” used in reviewing products.
Dozens of state departments of transportation have suspended installations of ET-plus until questions raised about the product have been investigated. And Trinity has suspended shipments of them, pending new FHWA-required crash tests, after a federal jury in Texas determined last fall the company had modified its product in past years without notifying the agency.
Since then, the guardrails have passed a first round of new crash tests and the agency is reviewing results of a second round.
A release by Warner noted that the Virginia Department of Transportation has plans to remove the ET-Plus guardrails, and that Virginia has filed suit against Trinity under state fraud law.