What It Means
The Federal Highway Administration is an operating administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation with responsibility for the federal-aid highway program, the National Highway System, and oversight of state bridge inspection activities. FHWA was established in 1967 as the successor to the Bureau of Public Roads, which traced its origins to the 1893 Office of Road Inquiry under the Department of Agriculture. In the bridge space specifically, FHWA sets and enforces the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS), originally promulgated in 1971 in response to the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse and substantially updated in May 2022 to incorporate element-level inspection, risk-based inspection intervals, System Redundant Member analysis, and enhanced qualifications for Team Leaders and underwater inspection divers. FHWA also maintains the NBI database, publishes the annual Recording and Coding Guide that defines every NBI item, certifies Team Leaders through the National Highway Institute's FHWA-NHI-130055 course (Safety Inspection of In-Service Bridges), and administers major federal bridge funding programs. Historically these included the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program (HBRRP) created under the 1978 Surface Transportation Act and the later Highway Bridge Program (HBP) under SAFETEA-LU. MAP-21 in 2012 consolidated HBP funding into the broader National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant Program while adding performance measures requiring states to track the percentage of National Highway System bridge deck area in Good and Poor condition. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) added a dedicated Bridge Formula Program distributing $27.5 billion to states and a $12.5 billion competitive Bridge Investment Program, totaling roughly $40 billion in new bridge investment over five years, the largest single dedicated federal bridge investment in U.S. history. FHWA Division offices in each state provide direct oversight and technical assistance to state DOTs for compliance with these programs.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is one of the bridge-engineering or FHWA-policy concepts that recurs across BridgeSafety. Below is how the concept connects to the National Bridge Inventory data behind every page on the site.
Within the BridgeSafety Condition Score, each primary component (deck, superstructure, substructure) contributes about a third of the rating, with an age penalty applied to bridges past their typical design life. The methodology page describes the scoring in full detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)" mean?
The U.S. DOT agency responsible for bridge inspection standards, the National Bridge Inventory, and federal bridge funding programs.
Why does Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) matter for bridge safety?
The Federal Highway Administration is an operating administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation with responsibility for the federal-aid highway program, the National Highway System, and oversight of state bridge inspection activities. FHWA was established in 1967 as the successor to the B...