The purpose of the Lowndes County Transportation Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment is to identify transportation infrastructure within Lowndes County that may be susceptible to extreme weather events and develop high-level strategies, policies, and countermeasures. Identifying at-risk infrastructure early on will allow for the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) and the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) to address vulnerabilities through the transportation planning process. The recommendations developed as part of this study will inform the ongoing update of the Lowndes County Hazard Mitigation Plan and Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan, both of which are to be completed later this year.

Lowndes County is vulnerable to a broad range of natural hazards, including extreme heat and inland flooding associated with thunderstorms, tropical storms, and hurricanes. It is projected that global climate change patterns will increase both the frequency and duration of these types of events, threatening the function and viability of transportation assets.

The assessment evaluated over 220 roadway assets and 100 bridges to understand their exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity to temperature and precipitation changes forecasted through the end of the 21^st century.

Results of the assessment indicate that throughout Lowndes County, there are 100 road segments which are expected to experience moderate to high temperature change vulnerability by the end of the 21^stcentury and 15 road segments which are expected to experience moderate to high precipitation change vulnerability by the end of the 21st century. The top most vulnerable segments are located on principal arterials and major collectors including N. Valdosta Road (US 41/SR 7), Bemiss Road (SR 125), Inner Perimeter Road (US 41/SR 7), Gornto Road, Baytree Road, and N. St. Augustine Road (SR 133).

The assessment indicated that there are 48 bridges which are expected to experience moderate to high temperature change vulnerability and 21 bridges which are expected to experience moderate to high precipitation change vulnerability by the end of the 21st century. The top most vulnerable bridges are located along principal arterials and major collectors including N. Valdosta Road (US 41/SR 7), Bemiss Road (SR 125), Inner Perimeter Road (US 41/SR 7), Madison Highway (SR 31), Gornto Road, Jerry Jones Drive, Baytree Road, and N. St. Augustine Road (SR 133). Some of these bridge facilities have over 15 miles of detour if they are closed due to damage from extreme weather events.

These facilities collectively represent critical links in the transportation network for Lowndes County and the Southern Georgia region. If any of these facilities fail, people traveling along the roadway could suffer various injuries. Further, the failure of critical facilities could also prevent people from accessing employment, shopping, recreation, healthcare, or other critical services, thus slowing economic output.

Based on results of the Vulnerability Assessment, the project team recommended strategies for the VLMPO and partner jurisdictions including systems planning (ex: incorporate more resilient design features, expand the analysis to include local roads and bridges, etc.), asset management (ex: conduct facility-level engineering assessment to identify specific improvements, complete assessments of roadside drainage infrastructure to mitigate stormwater impacts, etc.), and stakeholder engagement (ex: coordinate with local and state partners to develop resilient design and mitigation strategies, etc.).

The VLMPO will work with local jurisdictions to implement these strategies in future infrastructure improvements and to continue to evaluate transportation infrastructure for its level of resilience to extreme weather events.

The full report is available on the SGRC website at:https://www.sgrc.us/documents/transportation/signalstudy/Lowndes_Co_Vulnerability_Assessment_Tech_Memo_Final.pdf.

The Southern Georgia Regional Commission as the designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a multi-county, federally funded transportation planning agency for the Valdosta Urbanized Area. The MPO conducts long range and short range transportation planning in areas including: highways and bridges, public transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, freight movement among other areas.

To read more about SGRC or MPO, visitwww.sgrc.us.