Business Case and Communications Strategies for State DOT Resilience Efforts

Significant research has been conducted on many different aspects of system resilience and security, but research is lacking on the topics of (1) how state transportation officials can make a business case for investing in resilience strategies and (2) resilience-oriented communications strategies. Communications strategies are central to successful balloting of state and local funding initiatives. This project is focused on both the "hard" technical business cases and the arguably "harder" communications strategies applicable to the general public as well as governors, legislators, staff and leadership at state departments of transportation (DOTs), and regional transportation planning organizations. The 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L. No. 114-94) included several requirements for transportation agencies that reflected an increasing concern for system and operational resilience and security. For example, statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes were to consider projects/strategies to improve the resilience and reliability of the transportation system. It continued all prior National Highway Performance Program (NHPP) eligibilities and added (among four new eligible categories) one for projects to reduce the risk of failure of critical NHS infrastructure (defined to mean a facility, the incapacity or failure of which would have a debilitating impact in certain specified areas). The FAST Act keeps in place a resilience provision introduced in the 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which required state DOTs to develop risk-based asset management plans. State DOTs are addressing resilience issues in concert with local and regional organizations, including governments, planning organizations, non-profits, and the business community. In order to identify effective business case and communications strategies for state DOT resilience efforts, it is key to acknowledge the different demographics, infrastructure, and resource capabilities of each state DOT and agency, as well as the differing resilience opportunities and challenges they face. In addition, some state DOTs and local and regional transportation agencies have begun and achieved robust resilience activities. It is apparent that system resilience is becoming an ever more important concern for transportation officials at all levels of government. The objective of this research is to develop resources for state DOTs and other transportation organizations to help them explain the value of investing in resilience throughout the life cycle of planning, engineering, design, operations, construction, and maintenance activities. The resources should provide tools for state DOTs to (1) build the business case for investing in resilience strategies and (2) develop communication strategies to make the public and stakeholders aware of the importance of resilience as part of the state DOT's overall mission. This project should consider the diversity of resiliency issues among state DOTs and agencies.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4772

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $349704
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-127

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Parker, Stephan

• Performing Organizations:

  Cambridge Systematics, Incorporated

  150 Cambridge Park Drive, Suite 4000
  Cambridge, MA  United States  02140-2369
• Principal Investigators:

  Willauer, David

• Start Date: 20201215
• Expected Completion Date: 20221215
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Communications; Disaster resilience; Guidelines; Investments; Lessons learned; Stakeholders; State departments of transportation; Strategic planning
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01707630
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-127
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 3 2019 3:17PM