Risk and Resilience Analysis for Emergency Projects

Abstract

A recent review of the FHWA Emergency Relief Program identified the need for standardized procedures to guide states and FHWA when emergency relief projects are developed and reviewed and when eligibility decisions are made. This study builds on the risk analysis and management for critical asset protection approach developed to assess risk for critical infrastructure and reflects the requirements of the FHWA emergency relief program and manual. The approach outlined provides a process for state highway agencies and FHWA division offices to assess the reduced risk and improved resilience of design alternatives as compared with the restore-in-kind design for sites that qualify for emergency relief funds. The process outlined is also applicable to state highway agencies' all-hazards-risk analysis required for their risk-based asset management programs. The extent of damage that occurred from the September 2013 Colorado flood provides a rich environment to test this process and approach. In addition, the Colorado Department of Transportation's desire to provide as much insight as possible to its peer states through this recovery effort provides FHWA with a unique opportunity to develop and refine procedures with full cooperation from a leading state highway agency.

Traffic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Statewide Analysis of Social Separation and Activity Restriction

“…Timely, accurate, and actionable data are required for planning and decision-making. Information on the spread of the disease across and within transportation systems (e.g., nodes, hubs, links, vehicles, operators, passengers, and users) and an understanding of risk, risk tolerance, and risk management (Flannery et al 2015;Fletcher et al 2014;Reggiani 2013) are critical for strategic and operational planning. The capabilities used with events such as hazardous material release (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2011), infectious disease outbreaks on transit systems (Henson and Timmons 2017), air travel (Gardner and Sakar 2015), or management of transportation agencies during emergencies (Krechmer et al 2018) depend on many of the same systems, frameworks, protocols, operational procedures, and processes needed for the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Risk Management and Data Needs: A State of the Practice Survey of State Highway Agencies

“…This is evidence that most agencies see value to risk and resiliency considerations in risk management. The combination of risk and resiliency in the risk management process is explored in Flannery et al ( 18 ) and Herrera et al ( 19 ) and has been beneficial to prioritizing mitigation measures for transportation assets.…”

Building Back Better: Transportation Recovery Challenges From the 2018 Kaua`i Flooding Disaster

“…There is a need for more attention on climate change impacts in mountainous areas ( 52 ) and for developing new methods of estimating the impacts of extreme events on transportation infrastructure, which will rely on additional case materials and evaluations of recovery projects ( 53 ) and extending the analysis of both risk assessment and asset management ( 54 ). A major undertaking is sorting through the different resilience measures ( 55 ), as applicable to not just recovery metrics but also stronger mitigation and adaptation, which are difficult to implement given the urgency to restore damaged systems and the difficulty of implementing novel solutions as demonstrated in this case.…”