Abstract
Infrastructure lifelines such as energy, water, transportation and communications are interconnected and interdependent. Extreme events can damage these lifelines and disrupt their services. The recovery of one infrastructure not only depends on the extent of damage directly caused by these events but also the recovery of other infrastructures. The Southeastern United States experienced the damage of these infrastructure lifelines caused by hurricanes and tropical storms every year. This study empirically investigated the direct impacts of a recent major hurricane, Hurricane Irma, on transportation infrastructure and its dependencies on other lifelines during the recovery in Southwest Florida—an active hurricane region in the South. The transportation infrastructure of two counties that was directly hit by the hurricane was the subject of the current study. Data were collected from the two county departments of transportation. Group interviews were conducted with six engineers and managers working at the two departments to assess the extent that transportation infrastructure depended on three other infrastructure lifelines, namely energy, water and communications during its recovery. The hurricane caused the outage of all intersections managed by the two transportation departments for at least a short period of time. Electric power and wireless services were considered the most determinants in the initial recovery process. The Federal Highway Administration’s emergency relief policies can prolong the recovery if local transportation agencies do not proactively procure “recovery” contractors prior to extreme events. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding on the dependencies of transportation infrastructure during recovery after hurricanes.