We’re planning and preparing for how best to protect and manage our vital roads, bridges, ferry terminals and other facilities that could be vulnerable to severe weather and future conditions.

Sudden flooding like this on US 101 near Lake Crescent in December 2007 can be expensive difficult to control on vulnerable roadways

Drilled shaft bridges like this one on I-90 near Gold Creek make those structures more resistant to high-velocity flooding.

Protecting our roads

We're constantly working to protect and maintain the roads, bridges and routes we all rely on to get to the grocery store, soccer game, work, school and home.

Our maintenance crews work hard to keep our roads open during storms, floods, mudslides and snowstorms. Our engineering teams examine project sites for environmental conditions. And our materials experts analyze pavement mixes and structural materials to make them stronger and more resilient to the forces of water, wind and temperature.

We do this to protect and preserve our transportation system.

WSDOT completes federal pilot climate assessment

To better understand how well prepared our transportation infrastructure is for the increasing effects of climate change, WSDOT participated in a national pilot project to identify which roads, bridges and other facilities throughout the state are most vulnerable.

With a $189,500 grant from the Federal Highway Administration, the state took a leading role in testing and improving FHWA's new risk-assessment model. According to findings in WSDOT's Climate Impacts Vulnerability Assessment report (pdf 5.5 mb) issued in November 2011, the effects of climate change on some of our infrastructure will be high, but most of our roads and bridges appear resilient.
 
In addition to gaining new insight into making our climate preparation work more efficient and effective, the pilot project strengthened WSDOT's effort with the support and resources of the USDOT. In his  June 2011 statement (pdf 45 kb), U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood directed federal transportation agencies to consider climate change impacts on current systems and future investments and support state agencies as they do the same. 

What did we find?
Climate change will intensify the threats already facing our facilities. In the years to come, we should expect:

• more intense rains bringing more mudslides and debris onto our mountain roads
  
• rising rivers and streams that clog our culverts and bridge piers with logs and sediment
  
• dramatic loss of snow cover that reduces the cost of snow plowing but ravages roadside vegetation with drought and wildfire, weakening the stability of road banks
  
• sea level rising by more than 2 feet, threatening coastal highways and areas around rivers further into the state

Developing an integrated response

The Legislature directed us in 2009 to plan to protect our state’s communities, economy and natural resources from weather emergencies, and to prepare for gradual changes in climate. WSDOT and six other agencies are developing an integrated climate change response strategy. We’ve relied upon the science of the University of Washington’s Climate Impact Group as we’ve developed our response.

Project-level greenhouse gases and climate analysis

Our guidance for project-level greenhouse gas and climate change evaluations (pdf 356 kb) describes how we are addressing emissions and climate change in our environmental documents. Our work in this area continues to evolve and we are very fortunate to have excellent technical staff to keep pace with changes in modeling, methods and more. More information about how we are addressing climate change in project-level SEPA and NEPA documents can be found on the following website http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/Air/Energy.htm.