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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — As climate change grips the world, intense storms and heavy rainfall impact our communities in Minnesota. This can wreak havoc on our roads, bridges, and even our backyards.
Severe weather is ushering in new thinking in cities about building infrastructure that’s made to last.
As the sun sets over Lake Superior, there’s a new dawn for Duluth’s lakewalk that clings to its coast.
“The response to this new look, this new reset has been just phenomenal,” said Mike LeBeau, who manages construction projects for the city.
He remembers it was a redo not out of want, but need. A trio of powerful storms in late 2017 to 2018 tore up the shoreline.
“There were wind speeds of over 100 miles an hour and 20-, 25-foot waves,” LeBeau said.
Leaving nothing but tens of millions of dollars in damages — and an opportunity to rebuild better than before.
“We can’t be sure that we’ve seen the worst yet of what the lake can do, what the climate can do to us,” he said.
A team of specialists placed stones like pieces of a puzzle. Behind it, a concrete wall that’s 12-feet deep at some points.
“This is protecting the concrete wall, which is helping to protect the trail, and stairway and everything behind it,” he said.
Climate change is reshaping how cities think about building roads, bridges, and Duluth’s lakewalk.
State climate projections show more intense rain increasing in our future. State and federally declared disasters are more frequent — and costly.
Duluth’s Lakewalk (credit: CBS)
In Shoreview there’s a unique stretch of road tucked in between Lake Owasso and Lake Wabasso, according to Public Works Director Mark Maloney.
“The water just basically lands on the pavement and finds its way through these cracks,” Maloney said.
It’s called permeable pavement. The city began using similar tactic in a nearby neighborhood a decade ago as a way to boost water quality by minimizing runoff. And Maloney says there’s an added benefit of less flooding.
“We had a pretty static idea of how much rain we got and how long the winters were, and that’s really been challenged in the last to 15 years,” Maloney said.
This permeable pavement covers only about 1.5% of city streets. Maloney says it’s strategically placed, and it endures in Minnesota’s brutal winters.
“As soon as the sun gets on here for any sustained period of time, all of the stuff you see clogging the joints and pores melts away,” he said.
Up front, it’s a larger investment, he says, than typical concrete on normal roads. But in the long-run, maintenance costs less.
“I think the world we live in now – the people that are here and are paying for everything, are expecting us to be thinking this way,” Maloney said.
Sixteen Minnesota cities have declared a climate emergency, calling on the state and federal governments to commit resources to combatting the problem.
That includes Robbinsdale, which invested $320,000 for a new stormwater system so Crystal Lake, with no natural outlet, doesn’t flood. Bill Blonigan is the city’s mayor.
“We need to do something before we reach a tipping point,” Blonigan said. “Almost everything we do with our infrastructure, especially storm sewer … we have to upgrade it now to take account of the fact that the dynamics have changed.”
Those dynamics — changing climate — impacts infrastructure we use every day. Those tasked with designing and repairing it will have to meet that need, while Mother Nature takes its toll.
“We’re dealing with a new reality and we have to adapt to it,” LeBeau said.
An analysis from a few years ago by the National Institute of Building Sciences found every dollar spent on disaster mitigation saves communities $6.
Source: CBS
