Climate Adaptation of Road Infrastructure – A comparison of the implementation of the CEDR ROADAPT and the FHWA Framework for Vulnerability Assessment in The Netherlands and Washington State

Since 2014, the United States Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Rijkswaterstaat in The Netherlands
have worked together on the topic of infrastructure climate resilience. Currently they are implementing climate
change or extreme weather resilience tools for infrastructure projects. They are both applying the ROADAPT
framework (sponsored by CEDR) and the FHWA Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Framework to
projects in their respective countries: the SR167 completion project near Tacoma, Washington and the Innova58
highway expansion project in The Netherlands. This paper presents a discussion of the frameworks, the tools, the
results of implementation, and shares perspectives the authors gained from using the tools to help future users
understand the strengths and weaknesses of the tools. Both sets of tools have a similar approach and generally
result in comparable outcomes. However, each tool has its specific qualities and applicability. The ideal tool is
different for each situation. Both frameworks require expert knowledge to implement and interpret the results.