House Passes Oberstar Bridge Bill by Staff Appearing in www.oberstar.org on 2008-08-06. Last week the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Congressman Oberstar’s National Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act of 2008 (H.R. 3339), a bill that mandates state and federal transportation agencies work together to prioritize replacing bridges that pose the most immediate risk to the traveling public. The bill instructs the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to require that states certify that there are no structurally deficient bridges in their interstate system before they can shift federal bridge funds to other programs. A recent study by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee found that many states have diverted federal money from the Highway Bridge Program to other programs. In Minnesota, nearly half of its federal Highway Bridge Program money has been diverted to other items over the past 5 years. "My legislation sends a clear message to the states: fix your most critical bridge issues first; certify you've done that; then you can transfer those remaining dollars elsewhere," Oberstar said. The bill will also authorize $1 billion nationally for states to repair their structurally deficient bridges. "On Monday, I toured the construction site of the new I-35W bridge and I was amazed at the progress that was being made,” said Oberstar. “But we owe the victims and the survivors of that tragedy much more than a new bridge; we owe them a new bridge policy that ensures that the traveling public is safe. We have over 72,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States - 1,156 of them are in Minnesota. It is time to begin systematically repairing and replacing those structures." The bill would also require the FHWA to develop new bridge inspection standards, utilizing the best technologies available. "This bill is a good first step," said Oberstar who is chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. "Next year, we will begin work on a new surface transportation bill that will fund all of the nation's roads and bridges for the next six years. That bill will include a comprehensive program to address the problem of structurally deficient bridges."

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