Identifying vulnerabilities and prioritizing solutions across a multimodal transportation network

CTDOT Resilience Improvement Plan and Vulnerability Assessment

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) wanted to develop a resilience improvement plan to identify climate-related vulnerabilities, focused on multimodal assets. They engaged our team to help.

Understanding the challenges departments of transportation face with phasing and funding resilience projects, we used our in-house vulnerability assessment program to evaluate over 30,000 assets against four natural hazards under two climate scenarios. We then made these results available to CTDOT staff through an interactive, asset-specific webviewer. Concurrently, we evaluated over 400 existing projects and constituent-identified concerns for potential incremental resilience actions and grant eligibility.

Additionally, we identified focus areas using the vulnerability assessment results. These included the top 10 highest-scoring assets for each hazard type, hazard clusters identified through geographic information system (GIS) based analysis, and highly vulnerable bridges, culverts, and roadways. We developed screening criteria to identify 20 areas with challenges in alignment with the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) program, considering project phase, funding status, and feasibility.

We summarized this data in a focus area evaluation matrix and held a collaborative workshop with CTDOT to confirm the 10 focus areas in which we‘d develop projects for grant consideration. Working with CTDOT leadership, we identified key projects within each focus area and created a customized prioritization tool to rank projects and guide future selections.

When complete, the final action plan will provide CTDOT with top resilience projects and an investment plan to move them forward.