A new report says rising sea levels and inland flooding are deteriorating local roads and bridges.
Jennifer Jacobs, a UNH professor of civil and environmental engineering, authored a recent study that found all the storms that have been hitting the Northeast are aging roads and bridges faster.
"If the road is still wet from the surface down, it means that when we put a heavy vehicle on it, we are going to damage that road," Jacobs said. "So the road repairs that are needed to be repaired every 20-30 years might need to be repaired the following year or a couple of years later. It's expensive."
Jacobs said that, while the visible flooding is damaging the roads, there's unseen damage happening underground.
"The ground water impact goes four times further, so if you have any area that's already kind of wet, even its not right next to the coast, that ground level water is going to continue to rise," Jacobs said. "It's going to be even more vulnerable in the future in places that don't necessarily expect that vulnerability to take place."
Wayne Amaral, deputy director of the Newburyport Department of Public Services, said that roads in his coastal city are impacted severely when storms hit.
"The road looks like it is probably 8 years old, and its actually only 2 and half years old," Amaral said, "The salt water coming in and sitting on this road from storm surges is causing the road to deteriorate at a faster rate."
Jacobs said some possible solutions for the damage include elevating roads in the future and restoring marsh lands to act as a buffer for rising tides.
Unfortunately for residents, Jacobs said none of the solutions are cheap.
Amaral said the whole city is affected in multiple ways by the damage.
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"It's overwhelming to think about the financial impact," Amaral said. "It affects not just this one street, but it affects the streets nearby, and they're saying, 'Why are they getting their street paved four times in the last 12 years, when we haven't had ours paved at all?'"
Cox Media Group
