Challenge
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are under increasing pressure of natural and manmade risks. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires and snowstorms and other natural hazardous events such as earthquakes challenge the reliability of transportation infrastructure. At the same time, aging assets, urban congestion, limited funding and rapid integration of technologies complicate long-term planning. DOTs must contend with evolving manmade risks like cybersecurity threats, public health emergencies, terrorism and unintentional/accidental harm, all while striving to build resilient, sustainable and adaptable systems. While resilience guidance exists, DOTs struggle translating the comprehensive guidance into practical, actionable strategies.
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Solution
To bridge this gap between theory and practice, TRC led a project funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) that developed a Resilience Implementation Kit to help DOTs implement the 200-page NCHRP Research Report 970 guidebook (NCHRP 970). At its core, NCHRP 970 is a self-assessment maturity tool for transportation practitioners to identify and implement actions and strategies to enhance resilience capacity. Though NCHRP 970 was published in 2021, its dissemination has been limited due to challenges encountered in translating the comprehensive and extensive process into concrete action.
The Resilience Implementation Kit’s material and resource development was supported and informed through four one-day workshops that included more than 15 state DOT participants from across the country. The TRC team designed and adapted these workshops over the course of the project as the materials and resources matured. The four workshops were divided into two levels.
Workshops 1 & 2: Focused on material and resource development and refinement
Workshops 3 & 4: Tested and vetted the materials in real-world DOT contexts
Participants spanned from multiple disciplines including asset management, planning, emergency management, communications, maintenance and operations, engineering and structures, IT/cyber, hydraulics, risk management, climate committee, geology and geohazards, and government affairs and policy.
Throughout the workshops, the research team gathered feedback and facilitated peer exchanges to discuss resilience successes and opportunities, implementation challenges, NCHRP 970 Guide awareness, and senior leadership engagement strategies. Overall, there was strong participation throughout each workshop, including discussions about the Resilience Kit tools and resources, as well as excellent participation in the peer exchange regarding state resilience activities, challenges and barriers. Morning sessions emphasized self-evaluation and benchmarking, while afternoon peer exchanges fostered strategic discussions around best practices, leadership engagement and actionable next steps. The workshops overall were highly rated by DOT participants, who indicated the agencies greatly benefited from the peer exchange.
Results
The TRC team produced a Resilience Implementation Kit to operationalize the NCHRP 970, providing tools and resources for transportation practitioners to advance holistic resilience across agency departments, ensuring that organizations are both forward-looking and better protected from potential disruption.
Through open and honest dialogue during the workshops, transportation practitioners identified gaps, shared challenges and evaluated their preparedness using key resilience indicators.
Key takeaways included:
- Enhanced understanding of resilience implementation across DOT functions
- Increased confidence in assessing risk and planning for extreme events
- Stronger peer connections and shared strategies created momentum for broader adoption both within and across DOTs
The Resilience Implementation Kit is publicly available on NCHRP 20-44(41) and includes:
- Agency Resilience Implementation Guide
- Resilience Framework Workbook User Guide
- Resilience Framework Workbook
- Leadership Primer Newsletter*
- Leadership Primer Pocket Guide Brochure*
- Resilience Working Group (RWG) Kickoff Slide Deck Template
Through this initiative, DOTs are better equipped to proactively manage risk, enhance system reliability and implement actionable resilience strategies across their organizations.
A teaming partner, MIRTA LLC, led the development of the leadership materials asterisked above and provided reviews of the materials and resources develop by TRC.