Abstract

Transportation agencies are increasingly more challenged by the effects of extreme weather and national hazards on transportation assets.  Severe weather events in Kentucky have become more frequent and more costly. These extreme events damage transportation assets, increase maintenance costs and strain transportation budgets. Climate models predict changing conditions to occur over the next century that differ from historical data. In Kentucky, models predict a warmer and wetter environment. The goal of this research is to help KYTC plan for extreme weather and natural hazards events, as well as absorb, recover from, and adapt to the resulting damage.  Researchers determined where Kentucky transportation assets experienced damage from climate events and explored the consequences of not taking action to improve the resilience of Kentucky’s infrastructure. They utilized KYTC operations management system data to create GIS maps of roadway damages incurred from weather events. Climate data from Oak Ridge National Laboratory was sourced and combined with the records of damages. Then, researchers modeled the relationship between weather events and impacts to the transportation system. The result of the study is a four-step framework for a cost-benefit analysis the practitioners can use to determine the amount of damage that a weather event could cause. The framework can be used to calculate direct costs of project design, materials, and labor, as well as indirect costs and benefits to the community. Practitioners can target improvements to create a more resilient transportation system. Harlan County was used as a case study and showed that narrow roads, mountainous terrain, and lack of route redundancy created transportation system vulnerability.

Report Date

11-2024

Report Number

KTC-26-20

Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.13023/ktc.rr.2026.20

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