US Department of Transport Publishes Recommendations for Bridge and Tunnel SafetyThe Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has published a report stressing that tunnels and bridges in the United States are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The group of experts who prepared the report says the matter is important enough to be subject to a national safety policy. A series of recommendations at short, medium and long terms has been proposed. The study was sponsored by the FHWA in partnership with the AASHTO, an association which gathers the Departments of Transport of the 50 American federate States. The study shows that the 337 motorway tunnels and the 211 railway tunnels are strategic passages which must be studied. The loss of a critical bridge or tunnel at one of the numerous bottlenecks 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. Visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/security/brpcover.htm, www.fhwa.dot.gov and www.transportation.org 44/03.