Global warming has had disastrous consequences for the world鈥檚 transport infrastructure, hurting trade and quality of life. Just this week, New York鈥檚 Third Avenue Bridge connecting the Bronx and Manhattan because of an ongoing heatwave, creating dramatic complications for the region鈥檚 commuters.
To help buck this trend, Arup, the global AEC firm, has created a 鈥�an interdisciplinary program that transit agencies worldwide can employ to insulate rail and road assets from the pernicious effects of climate change.
The Rail Resilience Framework is specifically catered to rail planners, operators, regulators, and owners. , an associate principal at Arup who is also Americas East Resilience Leader at the firm, shepherded the program together with , Arup鈥檚 Americas East Civil and Water Leader. Other colleagues on the project included , Arup鈥檚 Global Rail Leader; and , Arup鈥檚 Resilience Leader.
Arup鈥檚 program builds on its experience working globally to build whole-system resilience with clients like Toronto鈥檚 Metrolinx, New York鈥檚 Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), , and . 鈥淚t鈥檚 just as much about organization science as it is technical and governmental,鈥� Ilana Judah told 宅男视频官网APP.听
On average, transport disruptions wrought by rising temperatures and sea levels cumulatively cost businesses every year. And today, of the world鈥檚 rail and road assets could be compromised by climate change if the status quo continues unchecked.
Railroad tracks are made of steel. And when steel overheats (which typically happens at 105 degrees Fahrenheit) it warps, a problem that engineers call getting a 鈥�,鈥� or 鈥渂uckling.鈥� Since the 1970s, sun kinks have in the U.S.鈥攖he equivalent of about 50 derailments every year.
More recently, service was terminated for hours between Edinburgh and London because of the heat. In 2019, monsoons forced outside Mumbai. Three years later, in 2022, floods in Australia closed a rail corridor between Sydney and Perth for several months; this caused massive postal delays and raised freight prices by 20 percent.
The path forward according to Arup firm leaders is just as much about technical fixes as well as intelligent policy-driven solutions, and even savvy UX design.
Superstorm Sandy, for instance, gave Arup the chance to strut its stuff. In 2012, the tri-state area was decimated by the hurricane鈥檚 . Neighborhoods flooded and much of the region鈥檚 infrastructure was brought to its knees, such as the century-old rail tunnel connecting Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station.
After Sandy, the New York City subway was in a bad sort of way, to put it lightly. Arup was subsequently brought on by the MTA to conduct a feasibility study and identify water entry points that could compromise the network in future natural disasters. But what started as a feasibility study became something much larger.
鈥淭unnels, vents, and stairwells are the obvious places where water can enter, but we identified many other unseen and hidden entry points like conduits and fan plants,鈥� Vincent Lee told 宅男视频官网APP. 鈥淲e inevitably modeled 9,000 different scenarios and models, which would have been very cumbersome to review in its raw form. So instead of giving the MTA鈥檚 operational staff a report, we created a user-friendly dashboard they could use to evaluate flood scenarios.鈥�
Engineers at Arup also worked with the MTA and ILC Dover to create Flexgate鈥�a fabric-based gate installed at the top of subway entrances made of NASA-designed synthetic materials that can be deployed quickly and withstand flooding associated with Category 2 hurricanes.
鈥淪o much of what we produced for the MTA is bespoke,鈥� Lee offered,听鈥渂ut then again I think much of it is replicable and scalable.鈥�
