Establishing National Tunnel Inspection Standards

January 22, 2008

Washington, DC -- Madam Speaker, I would like to voice my strong support for H.R. 409, and I would also like to commend Chairman DeFazio and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Capuano) for bringing this bill to the floor at this time.

On August 2, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed an earlier version of this bill on a voice vote. I believe that the entire committee agreed with the main objective of this bill, to ensure that our Nation's highway tunnels are safe. But some members had concerns about the new tunnel inspections directly competing with ongoing bridge inspections. This substitute bill addresses these concerns.

This bill requires the Federal Highway Administration to establish a new national highway tunnel inspection program in consultation with State DOTs and other knowledgeable organizations. The new tunnel inspection program is modeled directly on the existing highway bridge inspection program and addresses three major areas: One, it establishes national highway tunnel inspection standards to ensure tunnel inspection uniformity. Secondly, this establishes a national tunnel inventory to publish the findings of all tunnel inspections. And thirdly, it develops a national program for training and certification of highway tunnel inspectors.  This bill will make tunnel inspection requirements consistent with the current bridge inspection requirements. I think this is a concept we can all agree on.

There are approximately 400 highway tunnels in the United States, and we need to make sure that those tunnels are safe. But there are more than 580,000 road and highway bridges in the United States, including almost 55,000 interstate bridges. I'm pleased that instead of having tunnel inspections compete directly with highway bridge inspections, the substitute bill before us makes tunnel inspections eligible for funding from other highway programs: the Surface Transportation Program, the Federal Highway Administration administrative expenses, or surface transportation research funds.

I hope that if this legislation secures Senate passage and becomes law, we can further fine-tune the tunnel inspection funding source issue so that the different tunnel inspection activities are funded from the appropriate program.

Again, I voice my support for H.R. 409, and I urge its passage.