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
Guidance for project teams
Since 2008, all WSDOT NEPA Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments have disclosed project-level GHG emissions and described potential climate threats. Prior versions of our guidance combined the topics of GHG and climate impacts. Based on feedback from our project teams, the 2013 guidance is now separated. We developed the two as companion documents.