Planning to ensure a safe and reliable transportation system is a key objective outlined in the Atlanta Region’s Plan. Weather disruptions to the transportation system negatively impact the quality of life and the economic viability of the Atlanta region. Flooding, snow and ice storms, and heat waves all disrupt travel and impact residents and travelers alike. With climate models predicting more extremes in the future, there has never been a better time to understand and plan for our transportation system’s vulnerabilities from the perspective of both its users and its physical assets.
To ensure the region’s transportation, and communities, are resilient to both current and future weather conditions, ARC has worked over the past few years on exploring topics related to resilience. Some of those topics are listed below. Questions about resilience can be addressed to ARC’s contact page.
Building on previous work, in 2018 ARC won an FHWA grant to participate in the Extreme Weather and Durability Pilot program. This pilot will focus on looking at hydrological challenges due to flooding as well as the impact of extreme heat on transportation infrastructure and its users. ARC released an RFP and is in the process of selecting a consultant team to explore system vulnerability and develop new tools to assess risks to our communities.
In 2017, ARC staff worked with contractors to develop a vulnerability and resiliency framework for the Atlanta region. This framework outlines the process for ARC to integrate resilience to extreme weather, future climate and natural and man-made disasters into the transportation planning process. Below are the associated documents from the effort.
In December, 2017 ARC hosted a resilient communities workshop to share best practices with stakeholders. The workshop focused on transportation and public health aspects of resiliency related to sudden disruptions caused by extreme weather events and incidents such as the I-85 collapse as well as long-term disruptions related to climate change. Below are the materials from the workshop.
In October, 2016 ARC partnered with FHWA to bring a panel of practitioners from around the country to Atlanta to discuss how to better prepare communities and infrastructure for the impacts of a changing climate. The presentations are available individually, below, or in one zip file . A complete summary of the event is available on FHWA’s event website.
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