U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
FHWA Review of ET-Plus
Allegations have been made that Trinity made changes to the dimensions of the 4-inch ET-Plus in 2012 or 2013. In addition, questions have been raised about whether the devices being retested at SwRI are fully representative of the devices actually on the roadway, To address these issues, FHWA took several steps.
First, FHWA required that the devices tested be obtained from the existing inventory of a State DOT and not specifically manufactured for testing.
Second, FHWA engineers collected measurements of approximately 1,000 ET-Plus devices on the roadways in five states, providing a statistically-valid sample to assess whether there are any significant dimensional variations in the devices installed on the roads and to confirm that the devices tested were representative of those in the field. FHWA also has obtained quality assurance/quality control manufacturing procedures and data from Trinity, which should provide additional data and insight into these issues surrounding possible dimensional variations.
To analyze all of these data and assess the representativeness of the devices tested at SwRI, FHWA formed a joint task force with AASHTO. This task force evaluated whether the devices recently crash tested are reflective of the measurements of the devices taken in the field and whether there is any evidence that there are dimensional variations in ET-Plus end terminals measured in the field that indicate there are multiple versions of the device.
The task force concluded:
First, the devices tested in December 2014 and January 2015 are representative of the devices on the road.
And, second, the measurements do not support allegations that Trinity manufactured a second version of the 4-inch ET-Plus.
The measurement data, task force report, and supporting information are included below.
Report: AASHTO/FHWA Joint Task Force on ET-Plus 4" Dimensions, March 11, 2015 (PDF, 1,093 KB)
The data from the field measurements (PDF, 172 KB)
Supporting Material
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