Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION ORGANIZATIONS

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA):

The federal Highway Administration is the agency designated by Congress to administer the highway program of the federal government. It was created in 1893 as the office of Road Inquiry of the Department of Agriculture. For 20 years under several names, its function was to gather available knowledge and to teach others how to build roads. It was the Post Office Appropriations Act of 1912 that gave the first assignment of actual road building; functions were further expanded by the federal-Aid Highway Act of 1916. In1918 it became the Bureau of Public Roads of the department of Agriculture. Under a federal reorganization effective July 1, 1939, it was transferred to the federal Works Agency and became the Public Roads Administration. In 1949, under another reorganization of the government, it was transferred to the Department of Commerce and again named the Bureau of Public Roads. In 1967 it was transferred to the newly formed department of Transportation which also absorbed federal transportation activities such as urban mass transportation, the federal Aviation Administration, and the Coast Guard. It was placed under a federal Highway Administrator and a director of the Bureau of Public Roads. In 1970 the agency’s name was again changed to federal highway administration. Proposals for further reorganizing the federal government, if implemented, may again change the status and title of the agency or agencies under which the highway activities of the federal government are carried out.

            Activities of FHWA differ markedly from those of many other federal public works agencies. As indicated earlier, most of the federal funds for highways are spent by the state highway departments, with FHWA serving as adviser and monitor. In direct contrast, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Civil Works Division of the Army Engineers and the General Services Administration execute the projects themselves.