Identifying the Best Locations Along Highways to Provide Safe Crossing Opportunities for Wildlife: A Handbook for Highway Planners and Designers

Details

• Creators:
  Barnum, Sarah A.
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Colorado at Denver
• Corporate Contributors:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Environmental engineering
  • Environmental impacts
  • Habitat
  • Handbooks
  • Highway design
  • Highway planning
  • Landscape design
  • Mammals
  • Underpasses
  • Wildlife crossings
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CDOT-DTD-UCD-2003-9
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Colorado
• Edition:
  Final Report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Colorado. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  This document is primarily a manual to aid highway planners and designers in managing wildlife crossing of roadways. Because the preferred habitat and behavior of a given species can vary across its range, it is important to employ professionals familiar with the landscapes and species of concern on the analysis team. The results of the study also suggest that to maximize cost- and biological-effectiveness, wild life considerations should be incorporated into initial project planning and design. This approach avoids costly redesign delays stemming from environmental compliance obligations by considering reduction of wildlife/highway conflicts as a baseline design constraint. It also allows designers to find engineering solutions that do double duty, e.g., positioning retaining walls to stabilize slopes and serve as roadside barriers to guide animals to a safe crossing location. Finally, it may be necessary to work with the entities that manage landscapes surrounding projects to maintain the landscape structure cues that bring animals to mitigated crossing locations. The purpose of the handbook is to describe the highway and landscape variables that highway planners/designers should consider when choosing the best locations for mitigation that helps medium- and large-sized mammals cross highways safely.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  PG HAA 02HQ208
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/93331/dot_93331_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 959.22 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:279e264136202f7af99f38aa2c0b6f3d8d84bbf4b667258471d5dc40dfa87a797b1f088d31fc11f499ed5f8900b853333a42b94bdc33c17e6fc6ae1bc751b07d