AASHTO Journal, 29 August 2014
The Federal Highway Administration has made progress toward fully implementing safety provisions included in the 2012 MAP-21 surface transportation bill but the agency has much more to do, according to a new Office of Inspector General report released this week.
According to the report, which was requested by House Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Nick Rahall (D-West Virginia), FHWA has identified 24 actions that are needed to fully implement MAP-21 bridge safety and funding provisions. But so far, FHWA has only completed 12 actions and, according to the OIG, one of those actions failed to fully explain funding eligibility for related bridge projects.
“While I thank the Inspector General for this sobering and comprehensive assessment, it shouldn’t take an IG investigation to spur the Department of Transportation to act on potentially life-saving recommendations for shoring up our nation’s bridges,” said Rahall in a statement. “Nearly 47 years after the collapse of the Silver Bridge in my home state of West Virginia, significant concerns about bridge safety remain, and I am continuing to press for the action and investment needed to address the long list of bridges in need of repair and replacement nationwide.”
The OIG report said that “since 2006, FHWA has completed important actions to address our previous audit recommendations and new MAP-21 requirements. However, MAP-21 presents several significant challenges for FHWA in the coming years—especially its emphasis on performance and accountability.”
The report makes five recommendations that include:
- Update Surface Transportation Program guidance to address funding eligibility of historic bridges and replacement of destroyed bridges and ferry boat service.
- Establish a target date for completing the asset management plan final rule.
- Establish a target date to complete a Federal Register Notice describing the establishment of a risk-based bridge prioritization process.
- Include a summary of the cost to replace structurally deficient bridges as part of FHWA’s required bridge inventory report to Congress.
- Update FHWA’s National Bridge Inventory guidance to clarify the FHWA’s expectations for data quality and the process for ensuring that identified errors are resolved in a timely manner, including required time frames for error resolution.
In its audit response, FHWA concurred with recommendations 1. and 5. and said it had completed those tasks. FHWA partially concurred with recommendation 2. and committed to completing recommendations 3. and 4. by January 2015.
FHWA pointed out that “As a result of FHWA’s oversight and coordination with its State and local partners, bridge conditions in the United States have consistently improved.”
“Over the last decade, even as the total number of bridges in the Nation’s inventory increased from 594,100 to 607,751, the percentage of bridges classified as structurally deficient1 dropped from 13.5 percent in 2004 to 10.5 percent in 2013. Similarly, the percentage of the deck area on bridges classified as structurally deficient has dropped from 10.1 percent in 2004 to 7.7 percent in 2013,” FHWA wrote in its response letter.
The full OIG report is available for download at https://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default/files/FHWA%20Bridge%20MAP-21%20Report%5E08-21-14.pdf.
