TR News article Climate Resilience for Low-Volume Roads (Issue 355, Fall 2025) explores how enhancing the climate resilience of low-volume roads is vital to maintaining transportation networks and ensuring the well-being of communities that rely on them.

Low-volume roads (LVRs)—often unpaved—are increasingly affected by extreme weather events and shifting precipitation patterns, raising concerns about their resilience. This means that local road agencies need to implement strategies that not only protect the infrastructure but also ensure continued accessibility for local populations.

Climate resilience refers to a community’s ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from these extreme adverse weather impacts. For LVRs, this means that local road agencies implement strategies that not only protect the infrastructure but also ensure continued accessibility for local populations. Improving resilience involves assessing vulnerabilities, implementing adaptive designs, and investing in sustainable materials and construction practices.Improving resilience involves assessing vulnerabilities, implementing adaptive designs, and investing in sustainable materials and construction practices.

Specific strategies discussed in this article include: upgrading drainage systems, using permeable pavements, enhancing road durability with recycled aggregates and geosynthetic materials, elevating or realigning roads, preventive maintenance, and planting vegetation.

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