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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The T is already flooded with trouble, but a flood of another kind could set the system back tens of millions by 2030.
A new study by two MIT researchers said the system is already facing more than $24 million in annual costs from climate change, specifically sea level rise. That's double the 2008 numbers. The math quickly gets worse by the end of the decade, when — the study says — the system could face $58 million in sea-level damages and repairs annually.
By 2100, the best-case scenario is $1.2 billion in extra costs every single year. Outside of extra costs, the study has scary implications for the survivability of the T in these big storms. By 2050, the study said the kind of storm that hits once every two years could completely destroy the Blue Line and flood huge portions of most of the other lines.
The study is published in the open-access journal Communications Earth & Environment and took some funding from the MBTA and the U.S. Department of Defense.
WBZ's James Rojas (@JamesRojasNews) spoke to daily T commuters:
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