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National Bridge Inspection Standards rule (2022)
| What is a significant rule? Significant regulatory action is a term used to describe an agency rule that has had or might have a large impact on the economy, environment, public health, or state or local governments. These actions may also conflict with other rules or presidential priorities. As part of its role in the regulatory review process, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) determines which rules meet this definition. |
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The National Bridge Inspection Standards is a significant rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), effective June 6, 2022, that updates the National Bridge Inspection Standards for highway bridges.[1]
Timeline
The following timeline details key rulemaking activity:
- June 6, 2022: The final rule became effective.[1]
- May 6, 2022: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published the final rule.[1]
- January 13, 2020: The comment period ended.[1]
- November 12, 2019: The DOT published the proposed rule and opened the comment period.[1]
Background
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968 requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1978 expanded this to all bridges on public roads. The Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 extended this to underwater inspection and fracture critical members.[1]
Summary of the rule
The following is a summary of the rule from the rule's entry in the Federal Register:[1]
| “ | This final rule updates the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) for highway bridges. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP–21) required the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) to update the NBIS. Through this final rule, FHWA updates the NBIS to address MAP–21 requirements, incorporate technological advancements including the use of unmanned aircraft systems, and addresses ambiguities identified since the last update to the regulation in 2009. FHWA also is repealing two outdated regulations: the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program and the Discretionary Bridge Candidate Rating Factor.[2] | ” |
Summary of provisions
The following is a summary of the provisions from the rule's entry in the Federal Register:[1]
| “ | This final rule revises the existing NBIS relative to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI), including the requirement to collect element level data for National Highway System (NHS) bridges. The regulations require inspections of bridges on all public roads, on and off Federal-aid highways, including tribally and federally owned bridges, and private bridges connected on each end by a public road. The regulations include several new terms to provide consistency and clarity in the implementation of the regulations. This revision includes renaming some existing terms in a more descriptive way, such as fracture critical member being renamed nonredundant steel tension member (NSTM).
The final rule requires the bridge inspection organizations to maintain a registry of nationally certified bridge inspectors to align with a similar provision in the National Tunnel Inspection Standards (NTIS) in 23 CFR part 650, subpart E. Training requirements for program managers and team leaders have been modified by defining a required amount of refresher training for both roles and defining training needed to be a team leader on a NSTM inspection. The regulations prescribe the permissible inspection intervals for bridges, including options for more rigorous, risk-based intervals based on the consideration of certain factors. They provide options for establishing inspection intervals for each inspection type. An inspection interval tolerance of 3 months beyond the inspection date is included. Specific criteria have been established to allow for extended routine inspection intervals up to 48 months, and 72 months for underwater inspections. Similarly, requirements are described to enable the establishment of more rigorous, risk-based intervals in consideration of certain factors associated with bridges for routine, underwater, and nonredundant steel tension member inspections that would allow some inspection intervals to be up to 72 months. The final rule requires written reports to FHWA of critical findings identified during inspections and they provide minimum criteria for what a critical finding is, for national consistency. The regulations also require that a bridge inspection organization provide information to FHWA for annual compliance reviews. The updated regulations include new time frames for updating inventory data, and a process for tracking the updates of inventory data. In addition, they include a new document to identify data items for the NBI. This document, “Specifications for the National Bridge Inventory (SNBI),” replaces the “Recording and Coding Guide for the Structure Inventory and Appraisal of the Nation's Bridges (Coding Guide).” The final SNBI document is included in the docket.[2] |
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Significant impact
- See also: Significant regulatory action
Executive Order 12866, issued by President Bill Clinton (D) in 1993, directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to determine which agency rules qualify as significant rules and thus are subject to OMB review.
Significant rules have had or might have a large impact on the economy, environment, public health, or state or local governments. These actions may also conflict with other rules or presidential priorities. Executive Order 12866 further defined an economically significant rule as a significant rule with an associated economic impact of $100 million or more. Executive Order 14094, issued by President Joe Biden (D) on April 6, 2023, made changes to Executive Order 12866, including referring to economically significant rules as section 3(f)(1) significant rules and raising the monetary threshold for economic significance to $200 million or more.[1]
The text of the National Bridge Inspection Standards rule states that OMB deemed this rule significant but not economically significant:
| “ | This action is considered significant because of widespread public interest in the safety of highway bridges, though not economically significant within the meaning of E.O. 12866.[2] | ” |
Text of the rule
The full text of the rule is available below:[1]
See also
External links
Footnotes
