A new report from the Government Accountability Office has found that if U.S. roads are not built to withstand climate change, they may be unsafe to use in emergency evacuations and damages to the roads may cost up to $20 billion annually by the end of the century.
The report looked at the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) effort to encourage states to enhance the climate resilience of federally funded roads. After identifying projects in four states that planned or made resilience enhancements to roads and bridges, the GAO was able to identify recommendations that would enhance climate resilience to federally funded roads on a wider scale.
Congress has authorized about $45 billion per year for roads and appropriated about $900 million per year in disaster assistance from 2016 through 2020. The GAO previously limited the federal government’s fiscal exposure by better managing climate change risks on its High-Risk List. Enhancing climate resilience by working to reduce potential losses due to climate hazards can help manage climate risks, the GAO said.
To do that, the GAO made 10 recommendations that will help states improve the climate resilience of federally funded roads, including:
- Integrating climate resilience into Federal Highway Administration policy and guidance;
- Updating design standards and building codes;
- Providing authoritative, actionable and forward-looking climate information;
- Adding climate resilience funding eligibility requirements and criteria to grant programs;
- Expanding the availability of discretionary funding for climate resilience improvements;
- Altering the Emergency Relief program by providing incentives for pre-disaster resilience actions;
- Expanding the availability of Emergency Relief funding for post-disaster resilience improvements;
- Establishing additional resilience planning or project requirements;
- Linking climate resilience actions or requirements to incentives or penalties; and
- Conditioning eligibility, funding or project approval on climate resilient policy compliance.
FHWA officials said they would need additional authority from Congress in order to act on some of the options presented.