Across the country, roads and highways are showing the strain of increasingly severe weather driven by climate change — and the financial cost of addressing that damage could be enormous.
Heat waves are growing more frequent and more intense, and pavement is among the casualties. When temperatures soar, road surfaces can buckle, crack, and deteriorate far faster than they were designed to handle.
The question now facing transportation planners and policymakers is whether America’s existing road infrastructure is built to withstand the demands of a warming climate — one that brings not only more extreme heat, but also heavier rainfall and more unpredictable weather patterns.
Engineers and infrastructure experts warn that the challenge is not just about fixing roads after they are damaged, but about rethinking how roads are built in the first place. Materials and construction methods developed decades ago may no longer be adequate for the conditions roads face today.
As communities across the nation grapple with the growing cost of climate-related infrastructure damage, the road ahead — both literally and financially — appears to be a challenging one.
