Innovation Description and Benefit:

The current FHWA Buy America policy requires a material of origin form for every steel and iron component of a project. Additionally, it requires a material of origin form for each step in the process including smelting, shipping, coating, and bending. The submittal process for the suppliers and contractors are very onerous. Also, each state has varying requirements and forms which makes compliance very challenging for suppliers. The DOT struggles to receive all the numerous required material of origin forms. The entire process is extremely time consuming and costly to administer.

MoDOT has implemented a programmatic system where if a supplier is NTPEP compliant they no longer must submit material of origin forms with their steel or iron products. The new process utilizes the existing AASHTO NTPEP Compliance program which already verifies Buy America Compliance for Steel and Iron items. It saves hundreds of hours annually in processing all these documents.  The process is much simpler to maintain which reduces errors. By simplifying the process, it greatly reduces the chance of missing documentation which can lead to all federal funding on a project being lost on a project.