Natural hazards, risk, and the resilience of U.S. transportation infrastructure

Scott Anderson

Natural hazards are one source of risk to transportation infrastructure. Deterioration and the deferral of maintenance present a separate source of risk, though both can be managed. The National Highway Performance Program now in place in the United States requires that states perform risk-based asset management of pavement and bridges and encourages that other asset classes also be included in their plans. Infrastructure assets made of soil and rock can be included in this risk-based management, but these assets are often seen as the hazards themselves. Ideas and experiences on how this can be reconciled and how risks are calculated and communicated are presented. Resilience has always been a desirable attribute of transportation infrastructure and it is being considered more explicitly now, in part because of new legislation and funding, but a standard approach has not yet been identified.

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