FEMA considers the following bridge mitigation measures to be cost-effective if the measures do not exceed 100% of the eligible repair cost (prior to any insurance reductions).

1. Where traffic counts are low, replace with low-water crossings.
2. Install cables to restrain a bridge from being knocked off piers or abutments during floods or earthquakes.
3. Install girder and deck uplift tie-downs to prevent their displacement from the substructure.
4. Install Longitudinal Peaked Stone Toe Protection with nature planting, upstream of a failed abutment, to provide a stable floodplain bench for the protection of the abutment and the adjoining bridge approach. Consider other relevant bio-engineering applications such as engineered log jams, log vanes, or log bendway weirs.
5. Various scour countermeasures to protect and/or improve flow through the bridge crossing such as those found in the Hydraulic Engineering Circular.
6. In bridges that are damaged by widening of the channel at the bridge location, consider impacts of increasing the length of the bridge with jump spans against returning to pre-disaster length and incorporating river training structures adjacent to the bridge opening.