Colorado will host the USA’s first-ever national conference on managing the impact of natural and man-made disasters on transportation infrastructure, bringing together industry leaders from around the country at the two-day event.
On October 9-10, Denver will serve as the location for the inaugural Resilience Innovations Summit and Exchange (RISE), where leaders will share state-of-the-practice information about how to include resilience practices within transportation system performance activities.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will co-host this meeting, along with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Attendees from national organizations are expected to attend the summit, including:
• Transportation executives and practitioners who fund, own, plan, design, construct, operate and/or maintain transportation systems and facilities;
• Elected officials and community group participants who are concerned about the impacts of transportation system disruptions on a community;
• Emergency responders, and security and emergency management officials;
• Users of the transportation system who require reliable transportation system performance;
• Non-transportation agency officials who have responsibilities for resilient infrastructure systems;
• Researchers and consultants who study how to make transportation systems more resilient and equitable.
The loss of transportation assets, no matter the cause, leads to significant consequences for system users and the economy. Hazardous events and disasters over the years have demonstrated, often with tragic, cascading consequences, that many transportation assets, as well as other public and private assets, are vulnerable to compromise and are at risk of untimely disruptions.
Summit host Colorado is not immune to events such as these and the 2013 floods that affected the state are a prime example. CDOT’s resiliency efforts following the flood have become an example for other states recovering from disasters.
“Resiliency has been woven into almost every project we do since 2013. We learned from that disaster, but we have more to learn and more to share,” said CDOT’s executive director, Michael Lewis. “CDOT is proud to co-host this summit, and we look forward to this first-ever exchange of ideas with our peers around the country.”
