Northeast Florida’s latest transportation plan factors in resiliency issues for the first time in its history. That includes flooding from sea level rise and storm surge from Category 3 hurricanes or higher. The focus is on making sure taxpayer dollars on new infrastructure are well spent and threats to existing roadways are identified and mitigated.
Asked if this was the first time sea level rise was factored into the plan for the region, Planning Director Denise Bunnewith said it was, citing previous budget constraints.
“Not that we shouldn’t have done it before … but it is certainly on the forefront now,” she said.
Bunnewith is with the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, or North Florida TPO as it’s commonly referred to, a federally-funded agency that helps plan and coordinate transportation infrastructure for Nassau, Clay, Duval and St. Johns Counties. PathForward 2045 is its just-approved 25-year transportation plan that covers all aspects of travel in the region: roads, bridges, bike and pedestrian paths, public transit and freight. Because the projects are long-term in nature, the group looks at emerging technologies, like autonomous and electric vehicles, and demographic changes to envision the region’s needs in the coming decades. And now: resiliency issues.
“Mayport Road and A1A flood now,” Bunnewith said. “And there’s inland flooding on 220 in Clay County,” citing just a few examples of area roadways seeing regular flooding.
The concern for the planning organization is to protect evacuation routes and minimize traffic disruption due to weather-related flooding. Its new Resiliency & Vulnerability Assessment concludes the region’s “overall system vulnerability is moderate.”
But the following roadways have been identified as “moderate-high” vulnerability:
- US 17 in Clay County
- I-95, A1A, Beach Blvd and SR-116 in Duval County
- I-95 and A1A in Nassau County
- A1A, SR-206 and S-207 in St. Johns County
Adaptation planning to climate trends at the federal level began in 1989 by Presidential initiative and included 13 agencies, including the US Department of Transportation, which funds the North Florida TPO via federal gas tax. In 2015, Congress passed the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) expanding resiliency planning. Using the US Army Corps of Engineers’ sea level change model, developed in Florida and adopted by agencies throughout the country, the TPO commissioned a resiliency study of the region.
The study defines “adaptation” as making changes “to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate trends” thereby building “resilience.”
All area roadways were assigned a vulnerability rating. Local mitigation studies are currently underway at both the county and city levels in the region to identify specific actions needed.
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