11/13/2019 Federal Highway Administration - Wikipedia

Federal Highway Administration

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the
Federal Highway
United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway
Administration
transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two
programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands
Highway Program. Its role had previously been performed by the Office of
Road Inquiry, Office of Public Roads and the Bureau of Public
Roads.

Contents
History
Background
Federal Highway Administration
Creation
logo
Functions
Agency overview
Organization
Long-Term Pavement Performance Program Formed April 1, 1967

Administrators Preceding Bureau of Public

Deputy Administrators agency Roads
Executive Directors Jurisdiction Federal government
See also of the United States
References Headquarters Washington, D.C.,
External links U.S.
Annual $46.0 billion
budget (FY2019)[1]
History Agency Nicole Nason,
executives Administrator
Background Brandye
The organization has several predecessor organizations and a complicated Hendrickson,
history. Deputy
Administrator
The Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) was founded in 1893. In 1905 that Thomas D. Everett,
organization's name was changed to the Office of Public Roads (OPR) Executive Director
which became a division of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Parent Department of
The name was changed again to the Bureau of Public Roads in 1915 and to
agency Transportation
the Public Roads Administration (PRA) in 1939. It was then shifted to the
Federal Works Agency which was abolished in 1949 when its name reverted Website www.fhwa.dot.gov
to Bureau of Public Roads under the Department of Commerce. (http://www.fhwa.do
t.gov/)
With the coming of the bicycle in the 1890s, interest grew regarding the
improvement of streets and roads in America. The traditional method of putting the burden on maintaining roads on
local landowners was increasingly inadequate. New York State took the lead in 1898, and by 1916 the old system had
been discarded everywhere area. Demands grew for local and state government to take charge. With the coming of the
automobile after 1910, urgent efforts were made to upgrade and modernize dirt roads designed for horse-drawn wagon
traffic. The American Association for Highway Improvement was organized in 1910. Funding came from automobile
registration, and taxes on motor fuels, as well as state aid. In 1916, federal-aid was first made available to improve
post-roads, and promote general commerce. Congress appropriated $75 million over a five-year period, with the
Secretary of Agriculture in charge through the Bureau of Public Roads, in cooperation with the state highway
departments. There were 2.4 million miles of rural dirt rural roads in 1914; 100,000 miles had been improved with
grading and gravel, and 3000 miles were given high quality surfacing. The rapidly increasing speed of automobiles,
and especially trucks, made maintenance and repair high-priority item. Concrete was first used in 1893, and expanded
until it became the dominant surfacing material in the 1930s.[2][3]

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Federal aid began in 1917. From 1917 through 1941, 261,000 miles of highways were built with federal aid, and cost
$5.31 billion. Federal funds totaled $3.17 billion, and state-local funds were $2.14 billion.[4]

Creation
The FHWA was created on October 15, 1966.

In 1967 the functions of the Bureau of Public Roads were transferred to the new organization.

It was one of three original bureaus along with the 'Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety' and the 'National Highway Safety
Bureau' (now known as National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).[5]

Functions
The FHWA’s role in the Federal-aid Highway Program is to oversee federal funds used for constructing and
maintaining the National Highway System (primarily Interstate Highways, U.S. Routes and most State Routes). This
funding mostly comes from the federal gasoline tax and mostly goes to state departments of transportation. FHWA
oversees projects using these funds to ensure that federal requirements for project eligibility, contract administration
and construction standards are adhered to.

Under the Federal Lands Highway Program (sometimes called "direct fed"), the FHWA provides highway design
and construction services for various federal land-management agencies, such as the Forest Service and the National
Park Service.

In addition to these programs, the FHWA performs and sponsors research in the areas of roadway safety, congestion,
highway materials and construction methods, and provides funding to local technical assistance program centers to
disseminate research results to local highway agencies.

The FHWA also publishes the “Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices” (MUTCD), which is used by most highway
agencies in the United States. The MUTCD specifies such things as the size, color and height of traffic signs, traffic
signals and road surface markings.

Organization
The Federal Highway Administration is overseen by an Administrator appointed by the President of the United States
by and with the consent of the United States Senate. The Administrator works under the direction of the Secretary of
Transportation and Deputy Secretary of Transportation. The internal organization of the FHWA is as follows:[6]

Administrator

Executive Director

Office of Infrastructure
Office of Research, Development, and Technology

Public Roads magazine

Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty
Office of Policy and Government Affairs
Office of the Chief Financial Officer
Office of Administration
Office of Operations
Office of Safety
Office of Federal Lands Highway
Office of Chief Counsel
Office of Civil Rights
Office of Public Affairs

Long-Term Pavement Performance Program

Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) is a program supported by FHWA to collect and analyse road data. The
LTPP program was initiated by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council (NRC) in
the early 1980s. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with the cooperation of the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) sponsored the program. As a result of this program, FHWA has
collected a huge database of road performance. FHWA and ASCE hold an annual contest known as LTPP International
Data Analysis Contest, which is based on challenging researchers to answer a question based on the LTPP data. [7]

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Administrators
Roy Stone October 3, 1893 – October 13,
1899
Martin Dodge January 31, 1899 – 1905
Logan Waller Page 1905 – December 9,
1918
Thomas Harris MacDonald April 1, 1919 –
March 31, 1953
Francis Victor DuPont April 1, 1953 –
January 1, 1956
Charles Dwight Curtiss January 14, 1955
– December 1957
John A. Volpe (acting) October 22, 1956 –
February 5, 1957
Bertram Dalley Tallamy February 5, 1957–
January 20, 1961
Rex Marion Whitton January 20, 1961 –
December 30, 1966
Lowell K. Bridwell March 23, 1967 –
January 20, 1969
Francis Cutler Turner, March 13, 1969 –
June 30, 1972
Ralph Bartelsmeyer (acting) July 1972 -
June 1, 1973[8]
Norbert Tiemann June 1, 1973 – March
31, 1977
William M. Cox April 7, 1977 - May 1, 1978
Karl S. Bowers August 3, 1978 – January
1980
John S. Hassell, Jr. July 11, 1980 – February 5,
1981
Raymond A. Barnhart February 12, 1981 -
December 31, 1987
Robert E. Farris June 8, 1988 – May 17, 1989
Thomas D. Larson August 10, 1989 – January,
20 1993
Rodney E. Slater June 3, 1993 – February 14,
1997
General Kenneth R. Wykle December 2, 1997 –
September 4, 2001
Mary E. Peters October 29, 2001 – July 29,
2005
J. Richard Capka May 31, 2006 – January 24,
2008
Thomas J. Madison Jr. August 18, 2008 –
January 20, 2009
Victor Mendez January 20, 2009 – July 24,
2014
Gregory G. Nadeau July 30, 2014 – January 20,
2017
Brandye Hendrickson (acting), July 24, 2017–
May 6, 2019
Nicole R. Nason, May 7, 2019–Present

Deputy Administrators
D. Grant Mickle October 27, 1961 [9] - January 20, 1964
Lowell K. Bridwell(acting) January 20, 1964 - March 23, 1967[10]
Ralph Bartelsmeyer August 10, 1970 - January 25, 1974 [11]
Joseph R. Coupal Jr September 30, 1974 [12] - ?
Karl S. Bowers June 5, 1977[13] - August 3, 1978[14]
John S. Hassell, Jr. August 31, 1978 - July 11, 1980
Alinda Burke August 8, 1980[15] - ?
Lester P. Lamm September 17, 1982 - 1986
Gloria J. Jeff December 19, 1997[16] - January 3, 1999[17]
Dr Walter Sutton Jr (acting) January 3, 1999[18] - May 3, 2000[19] May 3, 2000 - January 2001
J. Richard Capka August 5, 2002 - May 31, 2006 [20]
Kerry O'Hare November 10, 2008 [21] - January 20, 2009
Gregory G. Nadeau July 8, 2009 – July 30, 2014
Brandye Hendrickson July 24, 2017 - Present

Executive Directors
Lester P. Lamm August 8, 1973[22] - ?
Thomas D. Everett October 22, 2018 - Present

See also
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Highway Gothic
Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute

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National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol (NTCIP)

U.S. Department of Transportation
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

References
1. https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hjres31/BILLS-116hjres31enr.pdf
2. Harold U. Faulkner, The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897-1917 (1951) pp 233-36.
3. Charles Lee Dearing, American highway policy (1942).
4. The total GNP at current prices, 1917 through 1941 = $2,227.2 billion, so these roads = 5.32/2.227.2 = 1/4 of 1%
of GNP. US Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States (1976) pp 224, 711, series F1, Q 64-
Q68
5. "Public Roads - Highway Existence: 100 Years and Beyond, Autumn 1993" (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructur
e/rw93.htm). fhwa.dot.gov.
6. "FHWA Organization - Federal Highway Administration" (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/about/org/). www.fhwa.dot.gov.
Retrieved March 15, 2018.
7. "Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) Of The American Society Of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Long-
Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) International Data Analysis Contest" (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/tfhrc/
programs/infrastructure/pavements/ltpp/contestguide.cfm). fhwa.dot.gov.
8. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd0125.htm
9. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd1027.htm
10. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd0323.htm
11. "January 25 - FHWA By Day - Highway History - Federal Highway Administration" (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byda
y/fhbd0125.htm). www.fhwa.dot.gov.
12. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/14novdec/03.cfm
13. https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/digital_library/sso/148878/85/SSO_148878_085_11.pdf#page=31
14. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd0803.htm
15. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd0808.htm
16. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd1219.htm
17. https://www.ttnews.com/articles/top-fhwa-official-jeff-resigns
18. https://web.archive.org/web/20180810050448/http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/calendar/calendar_thisdayin
19. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byday/fhbd0515.htm
20. "Public Roads - Along The Road , November/December 2002 -" (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroad
s/02nov/alongroad.cfm). www.fhwa.dot.gov.
21. https://web.archive.org/web/20180810050448/http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/calendar/calendar_thisdayin
22. https://web.archive.org/web/20180810050448/http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/calendar/calendar_thisdayin

External links
Official website (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/)
Records of the Federal Highway Administration in the National Archives (Record Group 406) (https://catalog.archi
ves.gov/id/702)
Federal Highway Administration (https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/federal-highway-administration) in the
Federal Register

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