Federal Highway Administration

The Federal Highway Administration ( FHWA ) is a division of the Department of Transportation of the United States, which is responsible for the network of trunk roads. It supports both the state governments as well as local authorities in the planning, construction and maintenance of highways and is responsible for ensuring that they are in a technically flawless and safe state. The financial and technical assistance is provided by two programs: the Federal Aid Highway Program, which is responsible for national highways, and the Federal Lands Highway Program, which is responsible for trunk roads on land in state ownership and managed by Indian tribes areas.

History

In 1893 was the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI, German National Road questions ) was founded. 1905, the name of the authority in Office of Public Roads (OPR, dt Office of Public Road ) was renamed and this assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture. The name was changed in 1915 to the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR ) and 1939 Public Roads Administration ( PRA, German authority for public roads ), which now moved to Federal Works Agency. When this was dissolved in 1949, the name changed back to the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR ) and the department moved to the Department of Commerce.

The Federal Highway Administration was created on 15 October 1966, took over on 1 April 1967, the functions of the Bureau of Public Roads.

Tasks

As part of the Federal Aid Highway Program, the FHWA monitors the use of derived from the Highway Trust Fund fuel tax funds for the construction and maintenance of the national road network. This includes Interstate Highways, United States highways and most State Routes. The FHWA decides on the Unterstützungswürdigkeit of the individual project, monitors their implementation and compliance with the building standards.

As part of the Federal Lands Highway Programs designs and builds the FHWA streets for various other state agencies that manage public lands, such as the United States Forest Service or the National Park Service.

In addition to the above programs, operates the FHWA research in the areas of road safety, traffic congestion and road-building machinery. The FHWA also participates in the Local Technical Assistance Program ( LTAP ), which provides with the help of technology transfer centers, the research results to the local authorities.

The FHWA is the editor of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices ( MUTCD ), which defines the appearance of the traffic signs, traffic lights and road markings. The responsibilities of the FHWA also includes the management of road traffic statistics.