Emergency Relief for Disaster-Damaged Roads and Public Transportation Systems

Disaster-damaged roads and public transportation systems are eligible for federal assistance under two U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) programs, the Emergency Relief (ER) Program administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Public Transportation ER Program administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The two programs have different histories and legal and regulatory authorities, but they share a similar intent and face some of the same issues. For example, there are concerns with both programs about the extent to which federally funded activities should go beyond restoring infrastructure to predisaster conditions, including so-called resilience projects. This report begins by discussing FHWA assistance for the repair and reconstruction of highways and bridges damaged by disasters (such as the 2017 Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria) or catastrophic failures (such as the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge in Washington State in 2013). This includes information on the use of ER funds on disaster-damaged federally owned public-use roadways, such as National Park Service roads and U.S. Forest Service roads, under an affiliated program, the Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads Program. This is followed by a discussion of FTA’s assistance program, established in 2012, which has provided assistance to public transportation systems on two occasions, once after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and again after the 2017 hurricanes.

• Record URL:
  • https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/download/R/R45298/R45298.pdf/
• Corporate Authors:

  Congressional Research Service

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Kirk, Robert S
  • Mallett, William J
• Publication Date: 2018-8-29

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster preparedness; Disaster relief; Disaster resilience; Disasters; Federal assistance programs; Hurricanes
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Federal Highway Administration; U.S. Federal Transit Administration
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01704693
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: R45298
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 16 2019 11:08AM