IV 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 848 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 20, 2009 Mr. Graves (for himself, Mr. Luetkemeyer, Mr. Cleaver, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Schock, and Mr. Blunt) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should support repairing and rehabilitating United States national transportation infrastructure, including bridges not located on a Federal-aid highway.

Whereas the Highway Bridge Program (HBP) in SAFETEA–LU [Public Law 109–59] requires States to expend at a minimum 15 percent of their annual apportioned amount on bridges not located on a Federal-aid highway (off-system); Whereas off-system bridges are public bridges owned and maintained by local governments and in many parts of the United States they are often times the sole transportation route for school buses, emergency responders, farmers, veterans, senior citizens, small businesses, families, and the traveling public; Whereas off-system bridges support our Nation’s food and energy supply by providing a vital link for commodities such as corn, soybeans, livestock, ethanol, and coal; Whereas in 2008, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated there was more than 285,000 off-system bridges nationwide of which more than 33,000 were functionally obsolete and 46,000 were structurally deficient; Whereas in a single State, using Missouri as an example, there are more than 13,000 off-system bridges of which more than 1,700 are functionally obsolete and 2,500 are structurally deficient; Whereas according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), functionally obsolete bridges are unable to properly accommodate traffic due to poor roadway alignment, insufficient width, waterway problems, low structural evaluation, or inadequate clearances; Whereas according to the FHWA, structurally deficient bridges are in relatively poor condition or have poor load-carrying capacity for modern design loadings; Whereas the off-system bridge program efficiently repairs and maintains functionally obsolete and structurally deficient bridges not located on a Federal-aid highway; and Whereas according to a Government Accountability Office report on the HBP released in September 2008, “Improvements were most notable in bridges owned by local agencies on rural routes, which may be attributable to the Federal bridge program requirement—under HBP and some of its predecessor programs—that states spend a minimum amount of their apportionment on non-Federal-aid highway bridges.”: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)understands the importance of off-system bridges to communities across the United States; (2)recognizes that continued Federal investment is necessary to repair and rehabilitate off-system bridges to provide safe bridge access for all users; and (3)supports program eligibility and a specific funding stream for off-system bridges in the Highway Bridge Program or a Federal highway critical asset investment program.