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April 2006
Katrina’s impacts on infrastructure featured at pavement conference
U.S.90 bridge at Biloxi Bay, Mississippi
Roads, bridges, guardrails, signals—no element of the transportation infrastructure was left untouched by Hurricane Katrina. In the plenary session of the 10th Annual Minnesota Pavement Conference, Randy Battey of the Mississippi DOT described the damage and told of his department’s actions before and after the storm.
CTS hosted the conference February 16 in St. Paul. Sponsors were Mn/DOT, the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) at CTS, and a number of other organizations.
Pavement repair was only one of the challenges faced by the Mississippi DOT, Battey said. The department had begun emergency planning earlier in 2005 with the creation of a hurricane evacuation guide and contraflow instructions. Before Katrina made landfall, 52 miles of interstate—the north/south routes for more than 1.4 million residents of southeast Louisiana—were set up for contraflow in just eight-and-a-half hours, he said.
The afternoon of the hurricane (Monday, August 29), MDOT began clearing roads to open paths for emergency vehicles. “Debris was on every highway in the southern half of the state, and most routes were not passable immediately after the storm,” Battey said. Crews made every highway passable by Wednesday evening and opened all lanes by Friday.
MDOT used contractor incentives to expedite road repairs. One example is U.S. 90 in Harris County, where MDOT reconstructed more than 29 miles of four-lane pavement in three months, using three paving contractors, at a cost of approximately $25 million.
The scope of destruction was immense. More than 18,000 miles of guardrail and 12,000 signs were damaged. On U.S. 90 in Harris County, Battey said, traffic signals were “obliterated” and 40 intersections were damaged. (All signals were up and running by September 19.)
As of February 9, projected MDOT storm costs were $765 million, Battey reported, with the amount growing steadily.
Many issues remain for the longer term. Planners in northern areas, where traffic counts are 50 to 70 percent higher post-Katrina, are struggling to gauge if the population shift is permanent. “Never-ending debris” keeps appearing in areas that were cleaned, Battey said, apparently dumped by nearby residents. And reaching consensus on the balance of aesthetics and functionality has slowed rebuilding.
Battey was one of several speakers in the plenary session, which began with a welcome from Mn/DOT Deputy Commissioner Doug Differt. Differt reviewed the past year’s accomplishments and touched on upcoming efforts, such as TERRA—the Transportation Engineering Road Research Alliance. TERRA, the governance structure that oversees the MnROAD pavement research facility, is working to expand usage of the road lab; recent new partners include Iowa, Michigan, and Norway.
Also in the plenary, Derek Tompkins, a graduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering (CE) advised by Associate Professor Lev Khazanovich, reviewed the lessons learned from MnROAD’s first 10 years. Many improvements in Minnesota pavements are due to MnROAD findings and products, Tompkins said. One example—better spring-thaw prediction—is expected to increase road life by up to 10 percent. Other important legacies are the MnROAD database, 136 reports or papers, and the many staff and students trained through the program.
Former MnROAD research director and CE professor Dave Newcomb (now vice president of research and technology with the National Asphalt Pavement Association) reviewed past accomplishments and future directions for asphalt pavements.
Concurrent session presentations by University presenters were:
- Ann Johnson, Civil Engineering, “To Pave or Not to Pave Your Gravel Roads”
- Gene Skok, CE, and Mark Loken,
Mn/DOT, “Pavement Rehabilitation Selection”
In addition, Mike Marti of SRF Consulting Group presented a new DVD created by Minnesota LTAP, Gravel Road Maintenance: Meeting the Challenge. (The DVD was created in partnership with SRF, with funding from Mn/DOT’s State Aid for Local Transportation Division.)
University staff on the conference planning committee were Jim Grothaus, Minnesota LTAP; Mihai Marasteanu, Khazanovich, and Skok, CE; Erland Lukanen Pavement Research Institute; and Lori Graven and Teresa Washington, College of Continuing Education.
More coverage of the conference will appear in the spring issue of the Minnesota LTAP newsletter.