Blue Ribbon Panel Issues Recommendations for Bridge and Tunnel Security
In the wake of 9/11, protecting the Nation’s critical bridges
and tunnels from terrorist attack has presented a new and largely unexpected
challenge for highway agencies. Meeting this challenge is the subject
of a new report, Recommendations for Bridge and Tunnel Security,
issued by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Bridge and Tunnel Security. In cooperation
with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO), Federal Highway Administrator Mary E. Peters formed the panel
last fall to provide guidance to highway agencies. As the report notes,
“the highway infrastructure has vulnerabilities, which must be
addressed. This is important enough to be a matter of national security
policy.” The panel stressed that loss of a critical bridge or
tunnel at one of the numerous “choke points” in the highway
system could result in hundreds or thousands of casualties, billions
of dollars worth of direct reconstruction costs, and even greater socioeconomic
costs.
While the panel looked at a range of infrastructure security topics,
including issues relating to management and operational practices, information
security, and mobilizing and responding to threats or attacks, the report’s
recommendations primarily address near- and long-term design and engineering
solutions to bridge and tunnel vulnerabilities. The panel recommends
collaboration by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), AASHTO,
the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and other transportation
stakeholders to prioritize all bridges and tunnels with respect to their
vulnerability to terrorist attack. This prioritization should be based
on such characteristics as:
- Potential for mass casualty based on average daily traffic and
other statistics.
- Criticality to emergency evacuation and response plans.
- Importance to military or defense mobilization.
- Availability of alternative routes with adequate capacity.
- Symbolic value of structure and potential for extensive media exposure
and public reaction.
- Mixed use of structure, such as by both automobiles and rail.
- Location at international border crossings.
Once the initial prioritization is accomplished, the report notes,
security solutions should be engineered and FHWA, as the Nation’s
primary Federal agency with the necessary engineering expertise, should
work with TSA to, among other things, administer fund allocation to
responsible agencies to meet high priority security needs. The panel
also stressed that bridge and tunnel security issues should be addressed
with new funding provided beyond and outside of current Federal-aid
highway funding sources.
As engineering standards do not exist regarding security concerns
for bridges and tunnels, the panel recommends developing appropriate
research and development (R&D) initiatives. The goal of the R&D
initiatives is to create empirically validated computational tools,
design methodologies, and hardening technologies that engineers can
use to “design for the terrorist attack.” The report notes
that the initiatives “are interrelated and interdependent and
should be pursued simultaneously.” These initiatives should:
- Assess the performance of critical elements under credible loads
(including load reversals).
- Validate and calibrate computational methods and modeling with
experiments to better understand structural behavior from blast loads
and thermal loads.
- Determine the residual functionality of bridge and tunnel systems
and their tolerance for extreme damage.
- Develop mitigation measures and hardening technologies.
In addition to these recommendations, the panel suggests that AASHTO
work with university engineering departments to develop curriculum for
educating students and bridge professionals on security issues. The
panel also recommends that the Department of Homeland Security work
jointly with industry and State and local governments to identify potential
technologies and standards that will provide better and more cost-effective
protection against terrorism.
Federal and State agencies and other highway infrastructure owners
are already moving to address the panel’s overarching recommendations.
FHWA, AASHTO, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have formed a technical
team to work with TSA to develop countermeasure options and threat scenarios
to include in a national risk assessment model. To complement this effort,
AASHTO will also work with FHWA and TSA to develop an AASHTO Guide
to Risk Management of Multi-Modal Transportation Infrastructure.
This will be an update to the Guide published in 2002 that
has already been used by many State agencies to assess their critical
infrastructure.
FHWA has formed an Engineering Assessment Team for Security to provide
technical advice on methods to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover
from extreme events. The team will also provide training and technical
support to infrastructure owners for risk assessments.
In partnership with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program,
the AASHTO Task Force on Transportation Security has developed a research
agenda to address security concerns for bridges and tunnels. Further,
as recommended by the panel, FHWA has already taken efforts to build
on the knowledge base available in the military by teaming up with the
Corps of Engineers. This cooperative effort includes a multi-year Memorandum
of Agreement to leverage resources for research, development, and training.
Cooperative efforts with the Corps have already led to the development
of workshops to train engineers to design for security.
For more information on the Blue Ribbon Panel Report, contact Steve
Ernst at FHWA, 202-366-4619 (email: steve.ernst@fhwa.dot.gov).
The report is available on the AASHTO Web site at security.transportation.org/brpt/brptoc.asp.
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Articles in this issue:
Partnerships, Innovation Build a Bridge in South Carolina
Blue Ribbon Panel Issues Recommendations for Bridge and Tunnel Security
Value Engineering 2003: Conference Features Success
Stories, Lessons Learned
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