According to the available date sources, 1,814 bridges failures occurred over the past 210 years in the United States. The most frequent cause of bridges failures were attributed to external events such as: floods, collisions, scour, overloading and deterioration. Among these external events, Hydraulic factor caused the maximum number of bridges failures with 54% of the total failures. 20% of hydraulic factor was failed by scour. Thus, base on the result of reviewing design basis and safety assessment practices, criteria for determining safety assessment of bridge foundation scour is proposed.