Boom or Boondoggle?: FHWA's Long Term Bridge Performance Program has the Makings of a Champion

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is planning to award a 20-year contract to develop the next generation of bridge management systems. The aim is to reduce variability and subjectivity in assessing conditions, as well as to develop bridge deterioration models based on in-service performance measurements, formulate design standards for next-generation designs, and maximize durability while minimizing maintenance costs. Forty years after the Silver Bridge collapse in West Virginia, which led to the development of the National Bridge Inspection Standards program, this new effort is designed to adjust to a new, leaner budget environment and a major rethinking in how bridge inventories should be best maintained. Other factors include the aging of the bulk of U.S. bridges as they reach and surpass their design lives, the lack of sufficient federal money for long-term bridge construction and replacement, and shortcomings of the existing visual inspection protocol. Additional details of the proposal are given.