DURHAM, N.H. – In his second State of the Union address, President Donald Trump focused on key areas where he proposed to make significant changes, among those were improvements to the highways and byways in the United States. However, unlike last year, his infrastructure plan contained few details and left lawmakers on both sides wondering about the ability to pass a bill.

Jennifer Jacobs, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire, is available to talk about the failing U.S. infrastructure and why it is in such jeopardy. Jacobs, a leading expert on the effect of climate change on transportation, can talk about how the increase in sea level rise, coastal flooding, extreme heat, snow, and wildfires associated with climate change, are just a few issues threatening the country’s roads.

“As tidal coastal flooding increases in the coming years, there could be big issues with the transportation infrastructure,” said Jacobs. “We’ve already seen billions of dollars in damage to coastal roadways from recent hurricanes and a 90 percent increase in flooding threatening over 7,500 miles of roadways along the entire East Coast. In the future, with rising sea levels, we expect to see more frequent issues, more damage, and impact to roadways even farther inland.”

Jacobs was the lead author of the transportation chapter for the fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) that offers insight into the challenges of climate change on U.S. infrastructure – the backbone of economic activity - to perform reliably, safely and efficiently. She has been interviewed as an expert on infrastructure by media outlets including CNN, ABC News Radio, Boston Globe, Fox, Buzzfeed and National Public Radio.

Jacobs can be reached at jennifer.jacobs@unh.edu and (603) 862-0635 or (603) 978-1509. She is available for on camera and radio interviews in UNH’s ReadyCam studio.