Workforce Topic Deep Dive

Welcome to the Workforce Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Plan Coordination Topic Deep Dive

Welcome to the Plan Coordination Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Federal Requirements Deep Dive

Welcome to the Federal Requirements Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Equity Deep Dive

Welcome to the Equity Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Data Visualization Deep Dive

Welcome to the Data Visualization Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Asset Valuation Deep Dive

Welcome to the Asset Valuation Deep Dive

Introduction

Key Concepts

Approach

Playbook

Legal Framework and Guidance

Research Spotlight

Programs and Funding

Resilience Deep Dive

Welcome to the Resilience Deep Dive

Introduction

A transportation system’s or asset’s resilience is its ability to anticipate, respond to, and recover from natural or man-made catastrophic events while maintaining its essential function. Events caused by climate change are becoming more frequent and severe, prompting an increased priority for integrating risk assessment and response into all facets of transportation planning and delivery.

Although Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), 2012, and Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, 2015, set the state for resilience planning, it was the 2021 The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 2021, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that has accelerated the deployment of resilience in life cycle cost and risk management analyses.

Key Concepts

Key concepts used in managing assets for resilience. They apply to assets and infrastructure systems.

  • Stressors, also called hazards (such as flooding, earthquake, erosion, wind, snow, ice, wildfires, landslides, and extreme temperatures, each of which places extraordinary pressure on assets and systems)
  • Exposure (the presence of an asset in a location where it could be negatively affected by a stressor)
  • Vulnerability (how likely the asset or system is to withstand a stressor)
  • Risk (how likely the asset is to be experience a stressor combined with a quantification of the impact)
  • Integration (incorporating assessment results into practices - planning, programming, scoping, modeling, financial, and prioritization)
  • Adaptation (long-term adjustment to stressors - such as changing design criteria)
  • Sustainability (how well the asset/system can reliably withstand stressors)
  • Mitigation (proactive actions that reduce risk - such as raising vulnerable roads and bridges, reducing carbon emissions)
  • Recovery (clean-up, repair, post-incident condition assessment)

Approach

Several guides have been written to help agencies implement resilience planning, each with its own approach. There are also a number of studies that focus on aspects of resilience without giving the full picture.

The approach for this Deep Dive is to suggest a process with discrete steps so that a practitioner can see how it all works together, or if working on a single aspect of the process, can go directly to the resources needed.

Playbook

The simplified playbook outlined below is not necessarily linear. For example, communication is a key component throughout the process. Likewise, following an initial assessment, simple actions to improve reliance might become apparent (such as changes to policies and procedures or maintenance adaptations).

  1. Understand what the organization is already doing, identify gaps, and formulate improvement plan.
  2. A baseline must be created to assess current practices and data availability. Baseline should include staff roles and responsibilities for resilience planning and implementation. The results of this evaluation will help agencies identify gaps, resilience readiness and focus efforts in subsequent steps through the improvement plan.

      Resources:

    • Checklist for inventory of practices and data to baseline (to be developed)
    • TAM Gap Analysis Tool. This tool provides a framework for assessing capabilities and identifying gaps. (Note: this tool will be updated and made available on the internet through this project)
    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapters 2 (provides a framework for self-assessment) and 3 (“Assess Current Practice”) This guide contains a self-assessment tool for gauging the status of transportation system resilience by incorporating resilience concepts into the decision-making framework.
      https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26125/mainstreaming-system-resilience-concepts-into-transportation-agencies-a-guide
  3. Incorporate resilience into policy documents and communications plans.
  4. Policy provides the decision framework for an organization, aligning actions with intent. Policy documents should frame the business case for pursuing resilience with a roadmap for cascading the policies into all aspects of business operations.

      Resources:

    • Checklist for policy updates (long-range plan, state policy plan, asset management plan, STIP, state policies, communication plans, design manuals, and operations plans) and multi-agency coordination (such as between statewide emergency management agency and DOT).
    • Linking Asset Management to Planning and Programming (2020). In this case study, six examples are selected from Maine, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Utah, and Wyoming demonstrating the connection between asset management and many plans and implementation. The case studies emphasize how asset management supports long range plans, the statewide transportation improvement program, and state planning and programming practices. (from TAM portal)
      https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/pubs/hif20089.pdf
    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 4: Organize for Success; Chapter 5: Develop an External Communications Strategy and Plan.
    • Resilience Primer for Transportation Executives (2021). This publication for DOT executives describes actions executives can take to incorporate resiliency into operations and long-range planning. (from TAM portal)
      https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26195/resilience-primer-for-transportation-executives
    • Public Transit: Federal and Transit Agencies Taking Steps to Build Transit Systems' Resilience but Face Challenges. This report by the Government Accounting Office examines the ways that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation provide help, through funding and technical support, to transit agencies to improve transit system resilience.
      https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-15-159
  5. Identify stressors and assess and quantify exposure and vulnerabilities.
  6. This step requires identifying stressors, locating assets that could be damaged by the stressors, and assessing the likelihood and extent of potential damage (vulnerability). ‘

      Resources:

    • Checklist/process for identifying stressors and assessing vulnerabilities using a flowchart with if/then scenarios. For example: Are there areas of coastal flooding? If yes, map the extent of the flooding and whether it is simple inundation or velocity flow. Overlay assets into the flood area.
    • FHWA Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Framework, 3rd Edition. This manual is intended to help DOTs assess the vulnerability of assets and systems to weather hazards and climate changes. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sustainability/resilience/adaptation_framework/chap00.cfm#toc498351467
    • NCHRP Synthesis 556 Asset Management Approaches to Identifying and Evaluating Assets Damaged Due to Emergency Events (2020). NCHRP Synthesis 556 summarizes state DOT practices used to identify pavement and bridge asset locations repeatedly damaged by emergency events and to mitigate the risk of recurring damage in those locations. The synthesis focuses particularly on mitigation practices that concurrently advance TAM and TPM objectives. Information for this synthesis was gathered through a literature review, a survey of state DOTs, and follow-up interviews with selected agencies. (from TAM portal) https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25825/asset-management-approaches-to-identifying-and-evaluating-assets-damaged-due-to-emergency-events
    • Managing Risks to Assets (2021). This study identifies good practices around risk management adopted by ten different state DOTs. Washington State (WSDOT), California, Kansas, South Dakota, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and Michigan all display insightful practices related to risk management. From WSDOT's incorporation of risk management into nearly every element of their TAMP to Caltrans' partnerships with other agencies to reduce risk, this set of case studies takes a deep dive into standout practices that all state agencies could consider adopting. (from TAM portal) https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/pubs/hif20086.pdf
    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 7: Understand the Hazards and Threats
    • Investing in Transportation Resilience: A Framework for Informed Choices (2021). Chapter 2: Natural Hazards, Climate Change, and America’s Transportation Infrastructure. This special report presents new methods and best practices for measuring transportation resilience and prioritizing resilience projects. Several methods for improving the resilience of an asset include strengthening the asset, adding redundancy to the network, or moving the asset entirely. Readers can find examples of resiliency metrics used by various agencies, a discussion on functionality recovery curves, and a decision-support framework for applying resilience analyses.
      https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26292/investing-in-transportation-resilience-a-framework-for-informed-choices
    • External data sources:
    • NOAA Storm Events Database: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
    • FEMA flood maps: https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps
    • FEMA’s HAZUS program: Tools used in hazard mitigation planning to estimate the risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes. https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/products-tools/hazus (This would be a good place for a video - how to use HAZUS in transportation system resilience planning).
  7. Determine and quantify risks.
  8. Synthesize data from the previous step and trend analyses to find the assets and pieces of the system at the greatest risk. This step includes detailed analyses where there are critical assets and/or concentrations of exposed assets, determining metrics, and setting thresholds for immediate action. Use the risk management section of the agency’s TAMP as a starting point.

      Resources:

    • TAM Guide: Develop a Risk Register, https://www.tamguide.com/topic/risk-management/
      Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 8: Understand the Impacts
      Investing in Transportation Resilience: A Framework for Informed Choices (2021). Chapter 3: Current Practice in Measuring and Managing Transportation System Resilience
  9. Understand impacts, examine options (mitigation, adaptation, recovery), and prioritize responses
  10. This step evaluates impacts based on costs to repair/rebuild/relocate, and system and socioeconomic impacts. Multiple options may exist for addressing adaptation or mitigation at the system and asset levels.

      Resources:

    • TAM Guide - Consideration of Risk in Resource Allocation. This section provides a process for resource allocation and prioritization and risk considerations. https://www.tamguide.com/subsection/5-1-4-consideration-of-risk-in-resource-allocation/
    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 8: Understand the impacts; Chapter 9: Determine Vulnerability and Prioritize Responses; Chapter 10: Identify Actions to Enhance Resilience.
    • Investing in Transportation Resilience: A Framework for Informed Choices (2021). This special report presents new methods and best practices for measuring transportation resilience and prioritizing resilience projects. Several methods for improving the resilience of an asset include strengthening the asset, adding redundancy to the network, or moving the asset entirely. Readers can find examples of resiliency metrics used by various agencies, a discussion on functionality recovery curves, and a decision-support framework for applying resilience analyses.
      https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26292/investing-in-transportation-resilience-a-framework-for-informed-choices
    • Fix it, Sign It or Close It: State of Good Repair in an Era of Budget Constraints (2021). This publication is a compilation of the legal framework within which transportation agencies operate — and the practices employed — to reach a state of good repair. It also examines possible legal consequences of an agency's prioritization and choices of whether to repair or rebuild assets vs. closing them. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26266/fix-it-sign-it-or-close-it-state-of-good-repair-in-an-era-of-budget-constraints
  11. Evaluate operations and maintenance practices for opportunities to incorporate resilience actions.
  12. Operations and maintenance practices will likely intersect with identified resilience actions. Those practices could be leveraged to help place the asset or system into a state of readiness for identified hazards.

      Resources:

    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 12: Identify Enhancements to Operations and Maintenance Activities
  13. Prepare and communicate hazard response plan.
  14. This step puts in place contingency and recovery plans in the event of a catastrophic event.

      Resources:

    • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021), Chapter 11: Assess Strategies for Enhancing Emergency Response Capabilities. Provides checklists and evaluate tools for preparing and communicating emergency response.
  15. Monitor and adapt strategies and actions as needed.
  16. This step develops a feedback loop to enable ongoing assessments and adaptations as new information and options become available.

      Resources:

    • Checklist of opportunities for monitoring and adaptation - Debriefings after major incidents, flags on assets with multiple repairs, ongoing coordination internally and externally, monitoring for emerging sources of funding and potential policy influences, etc.
    • TAM Guide - Monitoring TAM Processes and Improvements. The TAM guide offers several approaches that could be modified for resilience. https://www.tamguide.com/topic/risk-management/

Legal Framework and Guidance

This section of the Deep Dive provides the legal framework for states to consider and implement resiliency into asset management plans. It includes citations for relevant federal laws, as well as rules, regulations, presidential executive orders, and federal guidance for implementing those laws.

Laws
  • Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), 2012, set the stage, requiring states to develop and implement risk-based transportation asset management plans for the National Highway System (NHS) as part of the National Highway Performance Program (NHPP). It set standards for pavement and bridge management systems and required states to examine roads and bridges that are repeatedly damaged and consider whether there were any reasonable alternatives.
  • Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, 2015, added provisions on critical infrastructure to the asset management portion of the NHPP statute.
  • The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 2021 also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was signed into law, providing $567.1 billion in USDOT infrastructure investment over five years; $350.8 billion of that for highway programs. Most of that is distributed by formula. It requires state asset management plans to consider extreme weather and resilience in the lifecycle cost and risk management analyses (23 U.S.C. 119(e)(4)(D).
Rules, Regulations
  • FHWA_81 FR 73196: Implements asset management portions of MAP-21 and FAST Act that apply to assets repeatedly requiring repair and reconstruction due to emergency events.
    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/10/24/2016-25117/asset-management-plans-and-periodic-evaluations-of-facilities-repeatedly-requiring-repair-and https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-23/chapter-I/subchapter-G/part-667
  • Rulemaking for BIL is underway.
Executive Orders
  • Executive Order 13990 - Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis (January 2021) -
  • Executive Order 14008 - Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad (January 2021). Section 223 (Justice40 Initiative) - Establishment of policy that 40 percent of the overall federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad
  • Executive Order 14030 on Climate-Related Financial Risk (May 2021). Section 2 - Among other requirements, mandates a federal strategy for climate-related financial risk to federal programs and assets. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/05/25/2021-11168/climate-related-financial-risk
  • Executive Order 14047 - Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability (December 2021). Section 209 - Outlines actions to help the federal government adapt to the impacts of climate change. Section 402 - Incorporates environmental justice considerations into sustainability and climate adaptation planning. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/12/13/2021-27114/catalyzing-clean-energy-industries-and-jobs-through-federal-sustainability
  • Executive Order 14052 on Implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (November 2021). Section 2 - Sets implementation priorities, including “building infrastructure that is resilient and that helps combat the crisis of climate change …” https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/11/18/2021-25286/implementation-of-the-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act
Guidance
  • Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Fact Sheets FHWA
    https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/fact_sheets.cfmFTA:
  • https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grants/fta-program-fact-sheets-under-bipartisan-infrastructure-law
  • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/guidance.cfm

Research Spotlight

Start-to-Finish Guides
  • Mainstreaming System Resilience Concepts Into Transportation Agencies: A Guide (2021) This guide contains checklists and self-assessment tools to guide agencies through all aspects of resilience analysis and integration. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26125/mainstreaming-system-resilience-concepts-into-transportation-agencies-a-guide
  • FHWA Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Framework, 3rd Edition. This manual is intended to help DOTs assess the vulnerability of assets and systems to weather hazards and climate changes. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/sustainability/resilience/adaptation_framework/chap00.cfm#toc498351467
Case Studies
  • Managing Risks to Assets (2021). This study identifies good practices around risk management adopted by ten different state DOTs. Washington State (WSDOT), California, Kansas, South Dakota, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, and Michigan all display insightful practices related to risk management. From WSDOT's incorporation of risk management into nearly every element of their TAMP to Caltrans' partnerships with other agencies to reduce risk, this set of case studies takes a deep dive into standout practices that all state agencies could consider adopting. (from TAM portal) https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/asset/pubs/hif20086.pdf
  • Implementation of the AASHTO Guide for Enterprise Risk Management (2022). This report presents pilot projects with three different agencies as they applied the strategies and practices identified in the AASHTO Guide for Enterprise Risk Management and smaller case studies from several more agencies. Many agencies mitigate risk on a daily basis without realizing or formalizing the process. This study seeks to raise awareness for systematic risk management across the agency including a risk community of practice, peer exchanges, webinars, and outreach. (from TAM portal) https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26516/implementation-of-the-aashto-guide-for-enterprise-risk-management
Books
  • Public Infrastructure Management: Tracking Assets and Increasing System Resiliency (2019). This book hits on all aspects of managing public infrastructure: goal setting, maintenance, condition assessment, and risks and vulnerabilities to systems and how to address them. It also makes recommendations for budgeting and capital planning. https://books.google.com/books/about/Public_Infrastructure_Management.html?id=E_8AwwEACAAJ
Videos (content to be determined)
  • Practitioner videos - possibly go to case studies and interview those practitioners for what they would do differently and/or what worked really well or how they are tweaking processes to be consistent with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Templates (content to be determined)
Checklists (content to be determined)
Work Flows (content to be determined)
Other Resources
  • BIL established 10 new regional centers of excellence for resilience and adaptation (provide list once they are selected) and one national center.

Programs and Funding

This section will provide links to federal transportation resilience funding sources and programs that specifically address infrastructure resilience.

  • National Highway Performance Program - The BIL adds a provision to the program that supports “activities to increase the resiliency of the NHS to mitigate the cost of damages from sea level rise, extreme weather events, flooding, wildfires, or other natural disasters.” Eligibility expanded to include putting underground the public utility infrastructure (in conjunction with an otherwise eligible project); resiliency improvements on the NHS, and activities to protect NHS segments from cybersecurity threats.
    • An average of $29.6 billion per year 2022-2026.
    • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/nhpp.cfm
  • Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) - Formula program to improve resilience of the surface transportation system. Includes set-asides for resilience-related planning (development of resilience improvement plans). Non-federal share can be reduced through Resilience Improvement Plans.
    • An average of $1.46 billion per year, 2022-2026, in formula grants; an average of $280 million per year, 2022-2026, in discretionary grants.
    • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/protect_fact_sheet.cfm
  • Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBGP) - Adds new resilience eligibilities:
    • Protective features, including natural infrastructure, to enhance resilience of an eligible transportation facility
    • Measures to protect an eligible transportation facility from cybersecurity threats
    • Vehicle charging infrastructure
  • Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) Program (previously Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER)) - provides funding for road, rail, transit and port projects that help achieve national objectives.
    • $1.5 billion per year, 2022-2026.
    • https://www.transportation.gov/RAISEgrants/about
  • National Electric Vehicle Charging Formula Program - Formula program targeting electric vehicle charging along corridors and interstates.
    • An average of $1 billion per year, 2022-2026.
    • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/nevi_formula_program.cfm
  • Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grants Program - Grant program to develop alternative fuel availability (electric vehicle charging and hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling) infrastructure access along alternative fuel corridors and in communities.
    • An average of $500 million per year, 2022-2026.
    • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/nevi_formula_program.cfm
  • Emergency Relief Program - Eligibility expanded under BIL to include improvements that will lower the risk recurring damage or the cost of future repairs from natural disasters, such as raising roadways, stabilizing slopes and slide areas, seismic retrofits, and raising/lengthening bridges to improve water flow.
    • $100 million per year, 2022-2026.
    • https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/er_fact_sheet.cfm
  • Healthy Streets Program - Discretionary program provides grants (in part) for the use of cool pavements and porous pavements to reduce stormwater runoff and flood risks and the impacts of heat on roads and road users.
    • $100 million per year, 2022-2026.

A full matrix of federal competitive grants and eligible agencies can be found at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bipartisan-infrastructure-law/grant_programs.cfm

State-by-state formula funding amounts can be found at https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/usdot-releases-state-state-fact-sheets-highlighting-benefits-bipartisan