# The Lane Construction Corporation — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation **Citation:** 15-0076 **Type / status:** guidance / guidance **Agency:** Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration **Effective:** Not stated **Published:** 2015-07-09 15-0076 response to The Lane Construction Corporation concerning 172.516. ## Document text <<>> of Transportation J.S. Departmen Washington. DC 20590 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Materials Safety Pipeline and Hazardous Administration JUL 0 9 2015 Ms. Michele A. Jacobs The Lane Construction Corporation 90 Fieldstone Court Chershire, CT 06410 Reference No. 15-0076 Dear Mr. Jacobs: This is in response to your April 17, 2015 letter requesting clarification of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to placards. You ask what kind of damage would have to occur to a placard for it not to meet the placard specification in § 172.516. In your letter, you include a picture of a placard with a rivet hole and ask if it would be acceptable under § 172.516. The answer is yes. It is the opinion of this Office that the placard depicted in your letter would be acceptable under § 172.516. As required by § 172.516(c)(6), each placard on a transport vehicle, bulk packaging, freight container or aircraft unit load device must be maintained by the carrier in a condition so that the format, legibility, color, and visibility of the placard will not be substantially reduced due to damage, deterioration, or obscurement by dirt or other matter. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) cannot make a broad determination about what would be considered substantial damage to a placard. Therefore, PHMSA must consider whether the condition of a placard is still acceptable on a case-by-case basis. I hope this satisfies your request. Sincerely, lenn Taste T. Glenn Foster Chief, Regulatory Review and Reinvention Branch Standards and Rulemaking Division <<>> Andrew's $/72,516(r)(6) sibly and display Dodd, Alice (PHMSA) aro From: 15-0076 Sent: Geller, Shelby CTR (PHMSA) To: Hazmat Interps Tuesday, April 21, 2015 3:47 PM Subject: Attachments: FW: Request for Letter of Interpretation - 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6) April 17, 2015 Hazmat Letter of Interpretation 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6) docx Dear Shante and Alice, Attached is a formal letter of interpretation. Ms Jacobs spoke with Victoria Lehman and was also given interpretation reference number 99-0025 and 14-0106. Thanks, Shelby From: Michele A. Jacobs [mailto:majacobs@laneconstruct.com] To: INFOCNTR (PHMSA) Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 2:15 PM Subject: FW: Request for Letter of Interpretation - 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6) Please see attached document for a request for a formal letter of interpretation of 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6). Thank you, Michele A. Jacobs LANE Corporate Safety and Fleet Manager The Lane Construction Corporation 8205 Wilkinson Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28214 M: MAJacobs@LaneConstruct.com 2: 704.395.3243 | &: 704.394.5354 | Cell: 704.201.1249 6 Point Focus Safety / Innovation / Continuous Improvement / Coach and Be Coachable / Execute with Excellence Live the Lane Values From: Michele A. Jacobs Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 6:40 PM To: 'phmsa.webmaster@dot.gov' Subject: Request for Letter of Interpretation - 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6) Please see attached document for a request for a letter of interpretation of 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6). Thank you, Michele A. Jacobs 1 <<>> LANE Corporate Safety and Fleet Manager The Lane Construction Corporation 8205 Wilkinson Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28214 [x: MAJacobs@LaneConstruct.com Z: 704.395.3243 | S: 704.394.5354 | Cell: 704.201.1249 6 Point Focus Safety / Innovation / Continuous Improvement / Coach and Be Coachable / Execute with Excellence Live the Lane Values Note: This message is for the named person's use only. It may contain confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any miss-transmission. If you receive this message in error, please immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system, destroy any ard copies of it and notify the sender. You must not, directly or indirectly, use, disclose, distribute, print, or opy any part of this message if you are not the intended recipient. LANE INDUSTRIES and any of its subsidiaries each reserve the right to monitor all e-mail communications through its networks. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the message states otherwise and the sender is authorized to state them to be the views of any such entity. Thank You. <<>> LANE Office of Pipeline Safety Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE East Building, 2nd Floor Washington, DC 20590 April 17, 2015 RE: Request - Letter of Interpretation - 49 CFR 172.516 (c)(6) To Whom It May Concern: I am looking for clarification on what constitutes "Placard Damaged/Deteriorated/Obscured per FMCSA 172.516 (c)(6). Would a scratch or pealed section the size of a small rivet head be considered damaged under 172.516? Would a slight tear or scratch around the perimeter or inside the placard be considered damaged? These conditions could occur from a rock hitting the placard during a normal route of driving on the road to a destination. Can you provide guidance to show when a placard is considered to NOT meet the standard that states "must be maintained by the carrier in a condition so that the format, legibility, color, and visibility of the placard will not be substantially reduced due to damage, deterioration, or obsurement by dirt or other matter". Does the 1993 placard pictured below meet the guidelines of 172.516(c)(6) and therefore would not be considered in violation? The area is a small circle just above the finger in the picture. 1993 3 The Lane Construction Corporation 90 Fieldstone Court Cheshire, CT 06410 USA T 203.235.3351 LaneConstruct.com An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V <<>> LANE We would greatly appreciate more definitive answers to these questions so that we can appropriately instruct our drivers as to what is considered damaged placards during our training sessions. We do keep extra placards in all of our hazmat vehicles, however, when a driver does not think there is damage that constitutes replacement and then receives a violation for a minor imperfection it is difficult to know how to proceed. In summary we are looking for guidance in determining the point at which damage to a placard constitutes replacement. Thank you very much for your time and we look forward to your response. Sincerely, Michele A. Jacobs LANE Corporate Safety and Fleet Manager The Lane Construction Corporation 8205 Wilkinson Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28214 X: MAJacobs@LaneConstruct.com 2: 704.395.3243 | 2: 704.394.5354 | Cell: 704.201.1249 6 Point Focus Safety / Innovation / Continuous Improvement / Coach and Be Coachable / Execute with Excellence Live the Lane Values The Lane Construction Corporation 90 Fieldstone Court Cheshire, CT 06410 USA T 203.235.3351 LaneConstruct.com An Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V <<>> Dodd, Alice (PHMSA) Sent: From: Geller, Shelby CTR (PHMSA) Tuesday, April 21, 2015 10:22 AM To: Hazmat Interps Subject: FW: Formal Letter of interpretation Dear Shante and Alice, Attached is a formal letter of interpretation request. Mr. McElhoe spoke with Jordan Rivera. His mailing address is: Scott McElhoe Northland Services Inc. 6700 W. Marginal Way SW Seattle, WA 98106 Thanks, Shelby From: Scott McElhoe [mailto:smcelhoe@Lynden.com] To: INFOCNTR (PHMSA) Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 2:35 PM Subject: Formal Letter of interpretation Mailing addressed requested 4/16/2015 ta 12:57 pm Am I correct to interpret 49 CFR 176.410(e) that UN0332, Agent blasting Type E, 1.5D, II, may be stowed in the same freight container as UN1942, Ammonium nitrate, 5.1, III? If so, is segregation required between a freight container of UN0332 and a freight container of UN1942? Regards, Scott Me Elhoe, CSP Assistant General Manager Northland Services Inc. (206) 892-2788 ## Provenance - Official: Yes - Source: - Source ID: `phmsa` - SHA-256: `1f89200f351d003c3f069d0d17a06b96b2999c381d536ae57dfef41fad46cd49` - Retrieved: 2026-08-20T00:59:31.977Z - Exported: 2026-08-23T01:04:49.786Z - Document slug: `phmsa-interpretation-15-0076` ### Source metadata ```json { "materialSubtype": "interpretation", "interpretationArea": "hazardous_materials", "representation": "full_text_from_official_pdf", "companies": [ "The Lane Construction Corporation" ], "individuals": [ "Ms. Michele Jacobs" ], "refIds": [ "15-0076" ], "catalogDates": [ "2015-07-09" ], "catalogParts": [ 172 ], "catalogRowCount": 1, "sourceRecordUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/node/62176" ], "linkedAttachmentUrls": [], "unavailableResponseUrls": [], "duplicateRepresentationUrls": [], "citedSections": [ "172.516", "176.410(e)" ], "catalogPageUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/172516" ], "pdfUrls": [ "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/150076.pdf" ], "representations": [ { "viewUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/150076.pdf", "detailUrl": null, "detailHtmlPath": null, "pdfUrl": "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/150076.pdf", "pdfArtifactPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/15-0076-31b74f4810.pdf", "pdfArtifactSha256": "06735967f0be5db061f1e5fa4375ceeef6f90518e9aeb62ed76905e4c9d4744c", "extractedTextPath": "data/sources/phmsa-interpretations/15-0076-31b74f4810.v2.txt", "extractedTextSha256": "c96c3f434cfb2e8b2f03bdbc3f9e2e8c8e4a13d7ff0f3cca8e9e00c9ae46edb8", "pageCount": 6, "extractionVersion": 2 } ], "caveat": "Interpretations apply regulations to the facts presented and do not create independently enforceable requirements.", "jurisdiction": "US" } ```