This Week in Passenger Transport
March 24, 2008
Climate change has the potential to cause major problems for the U.S. public transportation infrastructure, according to recent studies released by U.S. DOT and the Transportation Research Board. The U.S. DOT report focuses on the Gulf Coast region, while TRB takes a broader look at all of North America.
The TRB report, Special Report 290: Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation, suggested that “flooding of coastal roads, railways, transit systems, and runways” may result from the projected global rise in sea level and storm surges that will result from global warming. “Though the impacts of climate change will vary by region, it is certain they will be widespread and costly in human and economic terms, and will require significant changes in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems,” the report stated.
U.S. DOT used historic trends and future climate scenarios to consider potential climate changes during the next 50 to 100 years for the central Gulf Coast, between Galveston, TX, and Mobile, AL. The Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Transportation Systems and Infrastructure: Gulf Coast Study, Phase I, shows that 9 percent of rail lines could be vulnerable to flooding due to rising sea levels and natural sinking of the area’s land mass, along with 27 percent of major roads and 72 percent of area ports.
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