Company says it met TDOT standards for installing guardrails
In a letter to TDOT, Lu Inc. said it abided by the department’s specifications when it allowed crews to install guardrail posts lesser than the required 44 inches on some state highways.
“Standard specifications of TDOT thus allow the cutting or sawing of timber posts when absolutely necessary,” the letter states. “The installation instructions for the guardrail system used by Lu Inc. allows leeway in the length of posts used without compromising motorist safety. TDOT is aware, or should be aware, of this leeway.”
Lu Inc., which is based in Kingston Springs, routinely sank guardrail posts into the ground only 12 inches deep, instead of the required 44 inches, a TDOT audit last month showed. It also said work crews did not completely replace some damaged guardrail terminals, sometimes using parts that vehicles had hit.
TDOT spokeswoman Kim Keelor did not want to comment about the Lu Inc. letter, which comes as state and federal transportation officials along with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI continue to investigate the guardrail installation.
Besides Lu Inc., East Ridge-based KRD Corp. is also accused of faulty post installation along some state roads. The company’s president, David Stutz, recently wrote a letter to TDOT that said his company is being falsely maligned.
Stutz said his company repaired shortened guardrail posts installed by another company. KRD was paid $7,600 to reinstall guardrail posts sunk only a foot into the ground on Plateau Road over Interstate 40 after the posts began to fall over.
In the Lu Inc. letter, an attorney for the company said of the thousands of posts already examined by TDOT, about 2 percent of the posts were likely cut: “It is Lu’s belief that less than 1 percent of those posts were cut short, some by a few inches, and some by several inches.
“The alleged danger to the motoring public arising from those few cut posts has been grossly overstated,” the letter states.
TDOT officials are expected to begin inspecting the state’s nearly 3,000 miles of guardrails next week. Keelor said TDOT hopes to have the process completed by Sept. 1 with a findings report to shortly follow.
Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely and Gov. Phil Bredesen have said TDOT is partly responsible for not noticing problems with the guardrails.
Lu Inc. had been the subcontractor on $20 million worth of highway work in Tennessee since 1998.