Mr. Daniel J. Hughes, Esq.
Alcan Aluminum Corporation
P.O. Box 6977
Cleveland, OH 44101-1977

Dear Mr. Hughes:

This letter responds to the request of your client, Alcan Aluminum Corporation (“Alcan”), for reconsideration of our denial of a non-availability component waiver of the Buy America requirements for its second generation co-extruded, aluminum-steel composite rail. For the reasons stated below, this request is denied.

It has come to our attention that Brecknell Willis, through its subsidiary Transtech, Inc., has recently begun producing aluminum core third rail in the U.S. Although this company uses a process of mechanically crimping steel to the aluminum core, which differs from Alcan's process of metallurgically bonding the steel to the core, comments received from our grantees indicate that the two products have comparable performance, i.e., for conductivity and durability. Because there is a U.S. producer of aluminum core third rail with substantially the same performance characteristics as the Alcan product, FTA cannot approve a non-availability waiver.

If you have any questions, please contact Joe Pixley at (202) 366-1936.

Sincerely

Gregory B. McBride
Deputy Chief Counsel