A 200’ wide overpass is recommended to ensure wildlife use (particularly elk) of a 300’ long structure. Julia reviewed considerations for an overpass structure. President Joe Biden has allocated about $350 million towards wildlife crossings in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. a wildlife overpass is not nearly as long as the VMT and the tunnel effect would not be as significant. About the Project: Wildlife underpass Wildlife overpass 8-foot-tall exclusion fence along both sides of US 160 Earthen escape ramps and deer guards. See Utah's highway wildlife overpass in action Footage released by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources shows moose, bears, deer and other wild animals traveling across the bridge sooner than expected. Similar crossings are being constructed in Colorado and the United Kingdom, and Sweden is building reindeer viaducts, or "renoducts," to protect their local wildlife population, according to The Guardian.
In Wyoming, collisions dropped by 90% following the construction of a series of crossings, according to the New York Times. Wildlife crossings have been shown to be effective in preventing collisions between people and animals on highways and freeways. "The groundbreaking marks a significant milestone towards this important wildlife crossing that sets a path towards saving our threatened local mountain lions and supporting the diversity of wildlife in the region," said Jeff Sikich, biologist for the National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, in the press release. While P22 lives too far from the bridge to make use of it, it will serve the area's 10 to 12 mountain lions, according to the Guardian, as well as bobcats, gray foxes, coyotes and mule deer. The project will also include an underpass, since studies indicate that various species of wildlife prefer either above ground or underground routes to cross highways. This artists rendering shows an elk using the overpass to be built over U.S.
The celebrity status of P22, who Beth Pratt, California director for the National Wildlife Federation, called the " Brad Pitt of mountain lions ," has helped raise the public's awareness of the threats wildlife face in the Los Angeles area. (2 minutes) A 200-foot-long wildlife overpass under construction in Los Angeles aims to help mountain lions and other animals roam safely across the concrete jungle of Highway. A busy highway can be a barrier for wildlife movement.
Mountain lions garner a lot of attention in California. The 330-foot-long span is the first overpass in the state designed exclusively for wildlife, according to the Utah Department of Transportation. In one surprising example, these divisions forced mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains into inbreeding simply because they couldn't make it to other genetically diverse lions. There are now overpasses used by moose in Canada. Researchers told NPR that the divisions caused by roads, malls and other man-made barriers were having adverse health effects on local wildlife. As National Geographic reports, wildlife overpasses caught on in Europe starting in the 1950s, and have been spreading around the world since. Unsurprisingly to anyone who's been behind the wheel of a car, roads are deadly to animals, with an estimated one million to two million killed annually in direct collisions alone according to the Federal Highway Administration.