Transportation resilience comes in many forms, including natural disasters, unexpected infrastructure failures, and cyber attacks. Transportation agencies and the executives who lead them must be prepared to act quickly and efficiently to restore service to the system when adverse events occur. This brief report covers how CEOs can improve the resiliency of their organization through operational and strategic planning and strong understanding of the technical and policy factors.

Paying for capital transportation projects is a major challenge for many state agencies, made more complex by the passage of Dodd-Frank and the COVID-19 pandemic. This report guides practitioners through the process of debt-financing. It clearly describes the federal regulations, economics, federal institutions, and program needs that govern debt issuance and management, and it goes into great detail for each phase of the debt-financing process. The four phases are the decision process, individual transaction preparation & development, marketing & placement of individual transactions, and post-issuance compliance strategy. Three key challenges are also addressed in the guidebook: accessing complete information, planning for economic uncertainty, and adapting to technological advances.

This research report, published in 2021, highlights the knowledge gaps within the transportation industry pertaining to transportation system resilience strategies and plans. The report outlines a five-year research plan to address these shortcomings and presents the critical resilience-related issues facing practitioners today.