FHWA Sets Rules for New National Tunnel Inspection Program

The Federal Highway Administration has issued a final rule spelling out the requirements for the first federal inspection program for highway tunnels.

The new National Tunnel Inspection Standards, published in the Federal Register on July 14, are similar to the nearly 50-year-old national requirements for bridge inspections.

The tunnel inspection rule is to take effect on Aug. 13.

The new standards, which stem from a provision in 2012’s Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, call for state and local agencies that own such tunnels to carry out routine examinations of that infrastructure at least every two years.

The rule also mandates training and a national certification program for inspectors and sets minimum requirements for inspection staff.

Gregory Nadeau, FHWA’s acting administrator, said in a statement, “The new standards will ensure inspections are consistent and focused to help ensure the public’s safety.”

For example, a program manager must be a registered professional engineer or have 10 years of tunnel or bridge inspection experience and also be a nationally certified bridge inspector.

FHWA will provide training for state and local engineers on issues such as which parts of tunnel structures to examine and how to report the data.

In addition, tunnel agencies must notify FHWA within 24 hours after they find a “critical” problem and let FHWA know what further monitoring or other actions they plan to take.

Moreover, the new program seeks to compile a national tunnel inventory, using information that state and local authorities collect and report to FHWA.

In its Federal Register notice, FHWA says it expects the new program to lead to only a "modest" rise in tunnel inspection costs because most agencies already check their tunnels at least every 24 months.

FHWA said a 2003 survey indicated that there are about 350 tunnel bores in the U.S. and the average inspection interval for the 37 owners that reported that information was 2.05 years.

The agency adds, "Inspections are vital to preventing tunnel collapses and closures, which often result in millions of dollars in repair and user-fee costs."

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority bridges and tunnels agency, which oversees the Hugh L. Carey (formerly the Brooklyn-Battery) and Queens Midtown tunnels in New York City, welcomed the new federal standards. A spokesperson said that they "will foster a more uniform approach to tunnel inspections and … will help insure the safety and integrity of tunnel facilities nationwide."

The spokesperson added that MTA's tunnel inspection procedure "is already in general compliance with the new [FHWA] requirements."

Story updated on July 21 to include N.Y. MTA comments.

Aileen Cho, ENR's senior transportation editor, is a native of Los Angeles and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Many of her experiences with engineers and contractors have inspired material for her alternative theater productions way, way off Broadway. For ENR, Aileen has traveled the world, clambering over bridges in China, touring an airport in Abu Dhabi and descending into dark subway tunnels in New York City. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun. Aileen is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Long Beach, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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