Feds want study on how climate change will impact ferries, Confederation Bridge

The federal government wants a better understanding of how climate change and extreme weather couldaffect key parts of infrastructure in Eastern Canada.

Atenderfor a vulnerability and risk assessment was issued Friday and applies to the Confederation Bridge,airports in Wabush, N.L., and St. Anthony, N.L., as well asferry terminals in:

• Digby, N.S.
• Saint John, N.B.
• Caribou, N.S.
• Wood Islands, P.E.I.
• Souris, P.E.I.
• Cap-aux-Meules, Que.

The Public Works tendersays the sites listed are vulnerable to "sea level rise, increased storm activities and changing wave climate" and Ottawa wants to identify any areas that are at risk of failure or damage.

No one from Public Works and Government Services Canada was available to commentFriday on the tender.

Nancy Anningson, coastal adaptation co-ordinatorfor the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre, said the undertakingsends a signal that authorities recognize rising sea levels can have a dramatic effect on infrastructure.

She said that even if bridges, ferry terminals and airportswereconstructed with climate change in mind, the increase in extreme weather events and rising sea level predictions means the work is never-ending.

Plans for the Confederation Bridge, for example, took into account highersea levels, but the estimated rate of risehasincreased since the span opened in 1997, said Anningson.

Avoiding 'catastrophic failure'

"Even though great planning was done at the time, as the predictions change, then we have to take a look at how climate change will affect this structureand continue to monitor and adapt as we can so these structures will continue to exist and we won't have a catastrophic failure," she said.

Anningson said she hopes more work of this nature will be done in the future, but she'd also support a broaderscope.

"I would very much like to see something similar where we're taking a look all around the province at our coastline and we're assessing structures that are at risk and therefore people who are at risk," she said.

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