The House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit met on Wednesday to discuss bridge inspection in the U.S. (a responsibility of the Federal Highway Administration). According to James Oberstar, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman , “With over one-half of our bridges built before 1964, it is increasingly important that we have reliable information on the safety of these structures. It is imperative that we accurately identify structural flaws and recognize when the appropriate time comes to load–limit, repair, or reconstruct a bridge.”
The latest data from FHWA shows that 25% of all bridges in the United States are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. A number of government agencies (IG, GAO, and others) critiqued FHWA’s inspection and data-collection methods, and offered their own plans to improve the situation. Video of the event shows that all agencies involved are taking the state of our nation’s bridges very seriously.
Excerpt of Oberstar’s Opening Remarks
Tags: Congress, Federal Highway Administration, FHWA, GAO, Government Accountability Office, House, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, IG, Inspector General, James L. Oberstar, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
RSS Feed