In March this year the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) officially rescinded its longstanding waiver for manufactured products used in transportation projects. The General Waiver allowed for the exemption of a wide variety of items used on federal-aid highway projects – including electronics, ITS hardware, electrical equipment, signal boxes, pumps and many more – from provisions mandating that they be produced in the United States. Under the final rule, a manufactured product is defined as an article, material, or supply that has been processed into a specific form and shape, or combined with other articles, materials, or supplies to create a product with different properties than the individual articles, materials, or supplies.
Under the revised rule, beginning with federal-aid projects obligated on or after October 1, 2025, manufactured products will need to be assembled (i.e., no requirements related to source or origin of the components) in the United States. After that, projects obligated on or after October 1, 2026, more than 55 percent of manufactured products components (by cost) must be made in the United States.
To comply with the Final Rule, MDOT has drafted the attached Domestic Materials
specification for industry review and comment. Some items to note:
-This special provision (SP) is to be included in all projects that include any federal-aid funds.
-This SP combines updated requirements with the Source of Construction Materials (20SP-105B) SP and the Source of Steel and Iron (Buy America) (20SP-105A) SP to include all BABA requirements in one SP.
-The Domestic Materials SP will be implemented beginning with the December 5, 2025, letting.
-The current draft does not include a de minimis clause. MDOT is currently working with FHWA to try and include language similar to what has previously been the standard with the Source of Steel and Iron (Buy America) SP. Currently FHWA is interpreting “project limits” to be anything included in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review and not just the contract, which would make including a de minimis application in a contract SP extremely challenging.
-MDOT has noted a number of ITS/Electrical/Signal items that do not appear to have current BABA compliant options. They are trying to address how they will work through the projects that include these items Currently, the only option may be to delay or remove the projects from lettings or remove that portion of work from projects.
-The Department has been reviewing items related to BABA compliant options. However, once implemented, if during advertisement a lack of BABA compliant items is discovered by bidders, please inform the contact person as provided in the bidding proposal.
Please click here to review the attached and send any comments or concerns to
rachellevandeventer@thinkmita.org by EOB on October 10, 2025. Also, please let us
know of any products you are aware of that do not have BABA compliant options.
If you have any questions, please contact one of the MITA engineering team:
Rachelle VanDeventer | rachellevandeventer@thinkmita.org
Jeremiah Leyba | jeremiahleyba@thinkmita.org
They can also be reached by phone at the MITA office: 517-347-8336.
