Protecting Critical Access Routes

Roads and other transportation infrastructure, such as bridges, are critical for evacuating areas before and during emergencies. When conditions are worst, we need our roads and bridges the most.

Communities should have a detailed inventory of the structural components of important access routes (including roads, bridges, and culverts), routine procedures for regularly examining them for damage, and a plan for upgrading critical pieces. When practicable, this infrastructure should be relocated out of the floodplain (for information on identifing your floodplain, see hazard identification and mapping).

When access routes are repaired, alternative designs should be considered to reduce future flood damages, including elevating roads above predicted flood levels and moving roads landward as erosion occurs and/or landforms shift. In addition, appropriate culverts should be enlarged and/or realigned to reduce future flood damage; care must be taken to ensure that these projects do not create any new flood hazards. When protecting critical access routes is impossible, consider relocating them to safer locations.

There may be funding available to help your community in these efforts.