Freight and Climate Change

1. Freight and Climate Change Robert Ritter Federal Highway Administration Office of Planning, Environment and Realty Prepared for Talking Freight June 17, 2009

2. Why is FHWA Concerned about Climate Change? • Transportation contribution to greenhouse gas emissions • Transportation is the second-largest source of greenhouse gases in the US; the US highway system produces 1/20th of the world’s CO2 emissions • Impacts on transportation infrastructure

3. Freight Rail 2.6% Passenger Modes 72.6% Freight Modes 27.4% Trucking 20.5% US Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Freight Transportation Mode - 2006

4. What can be done to reduce Greenhouse Gases? Multiple Transportation Strategies Raise vehicle energy efficiency Reduce carbon content of fuels Reduce VMT Land use Improve vehicle and system operations 4

5. Source: APTA 5

6. Another Reason We Care?The Potential for Costly Impacts 6

7. Mitigation vs. Adaptation • Mitigation: reduction of GHG emissions • Effects • higher sea levels • higher temperatures • Climate Impacts • flooding (of roads) • more rapid pavement deterioration

8. Mitigation vs. Adaptation • Adaptation • “Actions by individuals or systems to avoid, withstand, or take advantage of current and projected climate changes and impacts. Adaptation decreases a system’s vulnerability, or increases its resilience to impacts.” (Pew Center on GCC)

9. What is Adaptation? • Actions to avoid, withstand, or take advantage of climate changes and impacts • Adapting transportation assets to the new and emerging effects of climate change • Magnitude difficult to assess • Potential implications for where we locate and how we build

10. Climate effects vary by region, and could include: Higher sea levels due to sea level rise, and in some areas sinking of the land Increased hurricane storm surge as hurricanes become more intense More intense precipitation Changes in temperature: increases in average and daily high temperatures, number of hot days Stronger winds associated with hurricanes Changes in freeze/thaw cycles 10

11. Potential impacts on new and existing transportation infrastructure • Permanent inundation of roads, bridge approaches (sea level rise) • Weakening of land, substructure supporting roads, bridges (surge, precip) • Temporary flooding of roads • Coastal (storm surge, precip) • Interior (precip) • Increased stream flow, erosion and bridge scour (precip) • Pavement cracking, deformation; sun kinks (temp)

13. Rail Volume and Capacity in 2035

14. State of the Practice Significant inconsistencies across states and regions in goals and action plans Action plans generally stop at state or MPO boundaries DOTs sometimes not part of state-level action plans/strategy development Most focus has been on GHG mitigation, with little comprehensive assessment or action on adaptation

15. ResponseNo. of States Activities/action taking place Activities/actions under discussion No activities underway Adaptationto Climate Change - 2008 13 15 24

16. Adaptation Options • Maintain and manage • Higher maintenance costs • Protect, strengthen • Sea walls, buffers, design changes • Relocate • Move key facilities, instead of rebuilding • Promote redundancy • Emergency management

17. Adaptation Activities - Alaska • Loss of shore-fast sea ice & melting permafrost pose major threats to infrastructure • Governor established state-level Adaptation Advisory Group, including Public Infrastructure Technical Working Group • Examples of state & DOT adaptation activities: • Shoreline protection programs • Evacuation route planning • Relocation of at-risk infrastructure & communities • Permafrost protection • Enhanced/expanded data collection & collaboration across agencies

18. Adaptation Activities - California • National leader in addressing mitigation • Since 2008, Governor seeking to establish climate change adaptation strategy • Plan for sea level rise, shifting precipitation & extreme weather events • CA’s Climate Change Action Plan – possible adaptation options: • Use of ITS to manage impacts of weather changes • Revised infrastructure design • Researching rate of change(s) • Statewide Information Strategy to support infrastructure vulnerability assessment

19. What are the implications of Adaptation for transportation decision-making? • Efforts to adapt to the impacts of climate change should be reflected at every stage • Transportation Planning • Preliminary engineering and NEPA • Project design and construction • Operations and maintenance

20. Design standards, or something else? If current practice is to design for 50 yr event, could: • Change “design event” • Switch from 50 year storm to 100 year storm • Update “design event” • Factor in potential climate effects in defining 50 year storm • Adopt risk based design approach • Assign risks for different impact scenarios, develop multiple designs to address different design standards, estimate costs for each design/risk combination

21. FHWA Activities • FHWA Strategy to Address Adaptation to Climate Change Effects • Interim Framework on Conducting Assessments of Transportation Infrastructure Vulnerable to Climate Change Effects • Guidelines for Consideration of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Project Development and Environmental Review • Coordination/Activities with NOAA/NWS

22. FHWA Activities (continued) • NCHRP 20-83(05): Climate Change and Highway Infrastructure: Impacts and Adaptation Approaches • Gulf Coast Study – Phase 2 • Update of relevant FHWA regulations

23. For More Information US DOT Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse: http://climate.dot.gov/index.html Highways and Climate Change: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/index.htm Climate Change Adaptation Peer Exchange Report: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hep/climate/activities.htm Contact: Robert Ritter Federal Highway Administration Office of Planning, Environment and Realty Robert.Ritter@dot.gov; (202) 493-2139