Roads and floods: a photo essay

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Introduction
The winter of 2010/2011 was characterized as a strong La Niña in the Northern Rockies, resulting in above average precipitation and a deep snowpack. The heavy snowpack alone
was enough to cause significant flooding. When combined with spring rains, the results were catastrophic — flooded towns, ruined houses, and road failures across the national forests.

When flooded streams cascade down mountainsides, often they are hampered or blocked entirely by forest roads. Culverts, metal pipes that allow water to flow underneath roads, are designed to allow a certain flow of water and often can’t handle large flood events — especially if partially or fully blocked. This can lead to catastrophic failures, including overtopped culverts, debris torrents, and stream diversions. Road-triggered landslides can also occur when the roadbed becomes supersaturated. And when roads are built next to streams, they can be completely washed away. The results are significant negative impacts to water quality, aquatic habitat, and the organisms that depend on clean water. This photo essay shows what happened when the 2011 floods intersected with the Forest Service Northern Region’s road system (which includes Montana, Idaho, and the Badlands of the Dakotas). In the Northern region alone, almost 50,000 miles of roads cut through Forest Service lands, many of them vulnerable to catastrophic failure. With climate change expected to make heavy snowpacks, and the associated spring floods more common, now is the time to create a more sustainable road system.

Roads and Floods and Money

Fiscal Realities of Road Damage

• The Legacy Roads & Trails Remediation Program enables the agency to reduce road impacts from years of unmet maintenance needs, thus helping prevent storm & flood related damage.
• Since its high-mark of $90 million in FY10, Legacy Roads and Trails has been significantly reduced ($45 million in FY11), with even further cuts proposed in the House FY12 budget (to $35M).
• The Forest Service roads budget was reduced in FY11, weakening their ability to respond to this year’s severe weather impacts.
• The Federal Highways Administration Emergency Relief for Federally Owned (ERFO) Roads Program provides road funding where emergencies have been declared by the governor. Unfortunately, these funds are insufficient to cover all the damage and FHWA has been changing the rules regarding which roads qualify for funding.
• Damage left unaddressed from this year’s storms and floods may be placed in the agency’s deferred maintenance backlog, which is already between $5-8 billion dollars. Damage on the ground will continue until road failures are repaired.

Region 1: Northern Region

• As of July 5th, road damage totals nearly $9 million dollars, with more being reported as the snow melts.
• An ERFO request for eastern Montana is pending approval ($2.18 million dollars), but it is far short of the full dollar amount needed for repair.
• Legacy Roads and Trails was cut by $7.1 million in FY11 (a 59% reduction).
• The Capital Improvement/Maintenance Roads budget was cut by $3 million (a 20% reduction from FY10).

Region 5: Pacific southwest

• Actual road damage as of early June, with costs assigned, totals just over $7 million. There could be more damage after the snow melts,possibly reaching as high as $26 million.
• The bulk of the documented road damage to date qualifies for FHWA funding and the region expects FHWA to cover those repairs.
• Legacy Roads and Trails was cut by $3.1 million in FY11 (a 31% reduction).
• The Capital Improvement/Maintenance Roads funding distributed to the forests was cut by ~$5 million (a 33% reduction from FY10).

Region 6: Paci fic Northwest

• As of early July, Region 6 staff estimate damage at over $13 million, though they expect the number to rise as they access areas currently covered in snow.
• An ERFO request is being coordinated and will be submitted soon, but it will not cover the entirety of the damage.
• Legacy Roads and Trails was cut by $10.9 million in FY11 (a 57% reduction).
• The Capital Improvement / Maintenance Roads budget was cut $7.5 million (a 27% reduction from FY10).