Status of the scour evaluation of bridges over waterways in the United States

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have been monitoring since 1991 the progress made by State departments of transportation (DOT's) towards completing the scour evaluation of the 484,846 bridges over waterways which represents approximately 84% of the bridges contained in the National Bridge Inventory. The evaluation of bridges over waterways commenced in 1988 following the collapse of the New York Thruway Authority Bridge over Schoharie creek in New York in 1987. The current status of the scour evaluations, as of November 15, 1997, showed that 27 DOT's have completed at least 90 percent of their evaluations while the remaining 25 DOT's have not. The FHWA is committed to working with DOT's for the completion of the evaluations for the safety of the public users.