Abstract Manager

There is an emerging practice of undertaking “Resilience Assessment” for major transportation infrastructure, particularly in Ontario, Canada. The primary aim of these assessments is to enhance the sustainability and resilience of transportation infrastructure. These assessments are effective tools for identifying pragmatic design solutions to combat changing environmental conditions and can also create opportunities for assets to achieve common organizational priorities, including sustainability, safety, security, lower lifecycle cost, greater maintainability, and durability.

The assessment involves a detailed analysis of climate risks, including extreme ambient temperatures, high winds, overland flooding, and other climate parameters. The goal is to identify potential vulnerabilities in the current design and develop mitigation strategies to enhance resilience to climate impacts. Typical design standards and their associated requirements aim to ensure that the infrastructure can withstand projected climate conditions up to the year 2050.

Effective decision-making often incorporates a lifecycle cost assessment to evaluate the long-term economic benefits of the proposed sustainability measures. This assessment helps in making informed decisions about the most cost-effective and sustainable design solutions and allows organizations funding or operating assets to invest strategically for greater long-term benefit.

With minor adjustments (and limited additional effort) and the application of effective asset management practices, the assessment can consider other organizational priorities such as greenhouse gas emissions, circularity, durability, and maintainability, providing a detailed record of the infrastructure risks for future asset owners.

By leveraging advanced assessment methodologies and integrating them into the typical staged design process (i.e., 30%, 60%, 90% phases), the project aims to create resilient and sustainable transportation infrastructure that can serve communities for years to come.

This paper aims to serve as a case study to communicate the benefits and disadvantages of this model for other infrastructure projects looking to enhance their sustainability and resilience, improve durability and maintainability, and highlight the importance of proactive planning and innovative design solutions in addressing climate change challenges and other concerns experienced by asset owners.