SCOG Transportation Policy Board approves Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan

The Skagit Council of Governments Transportation Policy Board approved Wednesday the organization's Move Skagit Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan. SCOG staff began working on the plan in early 2025.

The resilience plan is a long-range plan that aims to "identify projects and solutions that make the transportation system in Skagit County more resilient to natural hazards," according to the Move Skagit 2050 website.

Findings from the resilience plan will be incorporated into Move Skagit's Regional Transportation Plan.

The resilience plan is part of the federal Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation program, which provides grant funding to organizations for the purpose of building resilient transportation.

A focus of the plan is an evaluation of 638 miles of roadway and 266 bridges in the region for exposure to hazards such as flooding, landslides, storms, drought and wildfires.

The plan includes charts that summarize evaluation findings and projections. The chart indicates the amount of roadway and bridges that are exposed to each individual hazard.

For example, the plan states that 21 bridges are exposed to coastal flooding, but by 2080, 27 bridges will be exposed.

With these evaluations, the plan is able to provide time and cost projections for damage to specific roadways.

The plan identifies the 20 pieces of transportation infrastructure that are at the highest risk of hazards.

The top three most at-risk roadways are a 5-mile stretch of Interstate 5 from about Mount Vernon Road (Exit 224) to Starbird Road (Exit 218); a 4-mile stretch of Highway 20 from March's Point Road to Best Road; and a 7.5-mile stretch of Fir Island Road and Best Road, starting at Dike Road and ending at Summers Drive.

The resilience plan was approved Wednesday with amendments based on comments that were submitted during a public comment period that ran April 17 through May 1.

Several comments noted the resilience plan's lack of culvert evaluation.

Due to a lack of available data on culverts in the region, culverts were not evaluated on their own, but the approved plan now includes a small section on culverts and their importance to transportation infrastructure.

The plan states that culverts should be taken into consideration in future planning, development and evaluation.

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