FTA Climate Adaptation Pilot Projects

August 21, 2013

Brian Alberts Program Analyst

FTA Office of Budget and Policy

FTA Climate Adaptation Initiative • Policy Framing: Dear Colleague Letter

and Policy Statement describe climate

impacts on FTA goals and commits FTA

to action

• Synthesis: “Flooded Bus Barns and

Buckled Rails” Report examines climate

impacts, strategies, and risk management

• Outreach: Workshops and webinars

– March 2012 FTA Workshop on Climate

Adaptation

– Have held four peer exchange webinars

• Pilots: Delve more in-depth on climate

impacts on particular transit agencies,

potential adaptation strategies, and

mainstreaming into transit practices

www.fta.dot.gov/adaptation

2

Past and Current FTA Adaptation Activities

• APTA Sustainability Workshops in August 2011 and

August 2012

• March 2012 Workshop on Climate Adaptation

• Webinars (Peer Exchanges) – Held 4 webinars with

the pilot projects

• Presentation by Deputy Administrator McMillan and

breakout session at the 2013 APTA Sustainability

Workshop

• FTA Climate Adaptation Assessment Pilot projects

3

Objectives of the Pilot Projects • Increase knowledge of how transit agencies can adapt to climate change (including

costs and savings, strategies, and mainstreaming into transit practice)

• Advance the state of the practice in adapting transit assets and operations to the

impacts of climate change

• Gather lessons learned for application to other transit providers (applicability to the

industry)

Need to be able to tell the story to other transit

agencies by having concrete examples from the pilots:

• Climate change adaptation is another factor we should include in asset management

• Adaptation is just better planning

• Planners must think about future conditions

• Saves money in the long run

• Some are already doing this and having success

4

BART Oakland West Portal

5

FTA Climate Adaptation Pilots

AK & HI not to scale

SEPTA / ICF

Philadelphia

BART

San Francisco

CTA

Chicago

Metro (Houston) / Island

Transit (Galveston) /

HART (Tampa) / Texas

A&M Transportation

Institute

LACMTA

Los Angeles

MARTA /

Georgia Tech

Atlanta

Sound Transit

Seattle

7 Pilots - $1 million total - Completion - August 2013

General Approach for the FTA Climate Adaptation Pilot Projects

• Identify climate hazards and potential climatic events

• Characterize risk on transit assets and operations

• Develop initial adaptation strategies

• Link strategies to organizational structures

• Final Report

6

Source: FTA “Flooded Bus Barns and

Buckled Rails” Report

FTA Climate Adaptation Pilots • BART ($150,000) – Has examined sea level rise, downpours, and flooding, and the potential

risks these climatic events pose for four stations in the East Bay/Oakland (including Oakland

West Portal, Oakland Coliseum, Fruitvale, & Lake Merritt). Developed cost-benefit matrices.

• CTA ($159,500) – Conducted three tasks, including: a survey of system vulnerabilities,

adaptation strategies, and implementation into standard business practices. CTA also looked

at various build and no-build scenarios and conducted a lifecycle cost analysis to determine

the potential costs and benefits of each adaptation strategy over time.

• MARTA ($175,000) – Focused on transit asset management and integrating climate

adaptation into an agency’s asset management practices. They further identified various

adaptation strategies and the costs of each potential strategy.

7

CTA O’Hare Tunnel Ventilation Shaft

FTA Climate Adaptation Pilots • LACMTA ($175,000) – Leveraged findings from their 2012 Climate

Action Plan and conducted four tasks, including: integration of

adaptation principles into LA Metro’s Environmental Management

(EMS) system, development of a tool to evaluate climate risks,

development of a set of metrics to assess LA Metro’s progress in

addressing adaptation; and outreach to stakeholders.

• SEPTA ($144,087) – Examined the Manayunk/Norristown

commuter rail line and researched current and future climate

hazards, key vulnerabilities, adaptation strategies, and lessons

learned (including the agency’s response to Hurricane Sandy).

• Sound Transit ($105,000) – Conducted workshops with

maintenance and operations staff to determine the agency’s

vulnerability to climate change, potential system-wide risks, and

adaptation strategies.

• Gulf Coast pilot (Houston Metro, Tampa HART, and Galveston

Island Transit) ($146,200) – Determined climate impacts along the

gulf coast, surveyed agencies to ascertain the severity of past

weather events, and proposed adaptation strategies by conducting

three case studies in the region.

8

BART Lake Merritt Station

FTA Climate Adaptation Pilots Next Steps • Draft Final Reports were due to the FTA on May 31,

2013 – FTA staff has reviewed all reports and

provided edits/comments

• A summary report is currently being written by FTA

staff that synthesizes the information and adaptation

strategies from each of the pilots’ final reports

• Final reports will be published on the FTA web site in

the fall of 2013

9

Federal Transit Administration

www.fta.dot.gov www.fta.dot.gov/adaptation