Rising sea levels will also raise groundwater levels – not good for roads

When we think of the dangers of rising sea levels we think of “king tides” along the NH seacoast and Florida spending more on seawalls.

But water in the ocean is indirectly connected with water in the ground under our feet, and when the former gets higher, so does the latter. Which isn’t always good, as UNH researchers note (in this paper). From the abstract:

Groundwater is expected to rise with sea level rise and will intersect the unbound layers of coastal road infrastructure, thus reducing the service life of pavement.

In other words, when the ground underneath roads gets soggy it makes them break more quickly. Be warned, coastal taxpayers.