Transportation Sector Case Studies
These resources include case studies of adaptation in the transportation sector, developed by the Georgetown Climate Center as part of a cooperative agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. The case studies include examples of how adaptation has been incorporated into decisionmaking at all stages of the transportation lifecycle: assessing vulnerability, planning, design, and operations and maintenance.
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Resource
January 2012
This report provides a methodology for assessing the impacts of sea-level rise (SLR) on Florida transportation infrastructure. The report analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of forecasting SLR in Florida and provides recommendations for how those methods should be used by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The report also provides recommendations for identifying vulnerable transportation assets and addressing potential impacts of SLR to those assets. After this methodology was developed, FDOT funded a subsequent project to develop a GIS-based planning tool that aids in statewide and regional assessments of transportation asset vulnerability to SLR.
Related Organizations: Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Atlantic University (FAU)
Resource Category: Assessments
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Resource
February 2013
The District of Columbia Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) Climate Change Adaptation Plan describes the impacts that the District is likely to experience due to climate change, outlines a framework for identifying priority assets, and sets forth a series of action items for implementing the Plan. The target audience for this framework plan is decision makers, engineers, designers, planners, and other transportation professionals in DDOT. The plan focuses only on transportation and was developed based on the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) research and guidance.
Related Organizations: District of Columbia Department of Transportation
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
2010
Edmonston, a small town near Washington DC in Prince George’s County, MD, created a “green street” to address previous problems with flooding on Decatur Street near the Anacostia River. The town wanted to better manage that flooding and improve water quality, as well as to manage traffic by narrowing the street. The project utilizes a variety of green infrastructure tools to reduce stormwater runoff, thereby decreasing the amount of polluted water that enters the Anacostia River. While the project does not specifically reference climate change as a motivation, the methodology and considerations for this project, could be useful for a jurisdiction that will experience heavier precipitation due to climate change.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
Spring 2016
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is reconstructing the Evergreen Point floating bridge, which runs over Lake Washington along State Route 520 (SR 520) near Seattle, to better accommodate varying winds and storms. The new design will be elevated, which will better protect drivers and the road from waves and storms, and the pontoons that allow the bridge to float will be designed to withstand higher winds. In its climate impacts vulnerability assessment, WSDOT has recognized that high winds could increase as a result of climate change and more extreme weather events.
Related Organizations: Washington State Department of Transportation
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
2009
New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) installed raised ventilation grates at 25 different locations throughout the city in order to reduce flooding of their subway system. Similar strategies could be used for underground highway assets, such as tunnels, where ventilation systems are at risk of flooding.
Related Organizations: New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), City of New York, New York
Resource Category: Solutions
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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has implemented projects to elevate electrical substations relied upon by critical transit systems – the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) and LaGuardia Airport in New York City – in order to better protect them from flooding during storm events. PANYNJ is in the process of elevating two Substations for the PATH system that were damaged during Sandy and elevating and replacing an outdated substation at LaGuardia Airport.
Related Organizations: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
February 2014
The Norfolk, Virginia Department of Public Works invested $2. 4 million to improve two waterfront streets, Brambleton and Colley Avenues, to reduce flood impacts. To reduce tidal flooding of the roadway the city elevated and widened Brambleton Avenue and rebuilt the intersection of Brambleton and Colley Avenues. Brambleton Avenue is a principal artery in downtown Norfolk that runs along the Elizabeth River and crosses over an inlet called the Hague. The project was implemented to address recurrent flooding that was already occurring in the area, which has caused frequent road closures.
Related Organizations: City of Norfolk, Virginia
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
April 2009
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) completed an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) In order to assess the impacts of proposed transportation investments in the San Francisco Bay Area. The EIR includes a qualitative assessment of potential climate change impacts on the region’s transportation system, with a focus on sea-level rise impacts. It also suggests measures to protect transportation assets from the impacts of climate change. The EIR, finalized in 2009, was part of the development of the MTC’s long-range transportation plan, “Transportation 2035 Plan: Change in Motion.
Related Organizations: California Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
June 2007
The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage created a model to estimate how much climate change could add to the costs of maintaining public infrastructure in Alaska in the near future (by 2030). This report describes how that model was developed, and presents preliminary estimates of additional public infrastructure costs resulting from climate change. The report concludes that a changing climate could make it 10 to 20 percent more expensive to build and maintain infrastructure, and that climate change induced damages could add $3.
Related Organizations: University of Alaska Anchorage, Institute of Social and Economic Research (University of Alaska-Anchorage)
Authors or Affiliated Users: Peter Larsen, Scott Goldsmith, Orson Smith, Meghan Wilson, Ken Strzepek, Paul Chinowsky, Ben Saylor
Resource Category: Assessments
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Resource
May 2015
European nations have collaborated on two research projects since 2009 to develop a detailed climate change risk assessment methodology and tools for adapting transportation systems and infrastructure. The first project, entitled “RIMAROCC” (Risk Management for Roads in a Changing Climate), produced a risk assessment framework to support decision-making regarding roads in light of climate change impacts. The more recent “ROADAPT” (Roads for Today, Adapted for Tomorrow) project developed guidelines and tools to be used with the RIMAROCC risk assessment framework, to better inform detailed vulnerability and socioeconomic impact assessments, and selection of adaptation strategies.
Resource Category: Assessments
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