Securing the Highway Infrastructure - An R&D Program

The United States has a huge, open and accessible transportation infrastructure making it vulnerable to physical, biological, chemical and radiological attack in addition to natural hazards. As such this presents a tremendous challenge for developing systems and technologies to keep the system safe and operational under all circumstances. There is a need to develop systems and technologies to prevent, detect, respond to and remediate any attacks. Bridges and tunnels are an integral part of the overall transportation system providing vital links for the Nation’s economy, defense, and quality of life. This paper summarizes FHWA’s vision for a long term, long range research, development and deployment program in support of the next generation of bridges and tunnels that are redundant and resilient to withstand unforeseen events.