FHWA awards $125 million in grants for wildlife crossings, highway safety

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is funding over a dozen highway projects that aim to reduce driver and pedestrian fatalities related to wildlife throughout the country.

The DOT’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is announcing $125 million in grants to prevent deadly and costly wildlife-vehicle collisions on America’s most dangerous highways. The grants, administered to state transportation agencies and tribal entities, will back projects that construct wildlife crossing overpasses and underpasses, fencing and related structures to safely connect natural habitats across public highways.

“Safety is FHWA’s top priority, and these roadway safety investments will ensure that motorists and wildlife get to their destinations safely while advancing a safe, efficient transportation system that benefits all road users as well as the environment,” Acting Federal Highway Deputy Administrator Gloria M. Shepherd said.

The national funding represents the second grant round of the federal Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program, a $350 million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded initiative seeking to make the nation’s highways safer for drivers, passengers and wildlife. These fiscal year 2024-2025 grants, the largest anticipated under the program, will support wildlife crossing projects in 16 states and one tribal nation to improve road safety and environmental health across the country.

The projects funded by the program are designed to create safer roadways for the traveling public while also helping to preserve biodiversity. Constructing wildlife crossings, such as elevated bridges or tunnels, allows animals to safely pass beneath or above highways, inevitably reducing the likelihood of collisions. In addition to physical crossings, the projects will also involve the installation of fencing along roadways to funnel wildlife to designated crossing points, ensuring they avoid dangerous encounters with traffic.

The nine grant program selections set to receive more than $1 million, including project funding allocations and project descriptions, are as follows:

Oregon Department of Transportation – $33.2 million to conduct the Mariposa Preserve Wildlife Overcrossing Project in Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The project will construct an overpass bridge and fencing for wildlife to safely cross over Interstate 5. The project is anticipated to reduce vehicle-wildlife collisions and protect deer, bear, elk, cougar and large-bodied animal populations.

North Carolina Department of Transportation – $25 million to initiate the US-64 Red Wolf Crossing Project in Dare County. The project would develop multiple wildlife underpasses along US-64 within the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It would also include additional fencing, supporting infrastructure and the advancement of the Red Wolf Recovery Program.

Idaho Department of Transportation – $20.8 million to start the US-30 Rocky Point Wildlife Crossing Project in rural Bear Lake County. The project aims to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions with mule deer by constructing three wildlife underpasses and eight-foot-tall fencing along six miles of US-30.

Nevada Department of Transportation – $16.8 million for the Coyote Springs Tortoise Crossing Project along a 34-mile segment of US-93. The project would construct 61 wildlife crossings and 68 miles of fencing to mitigate the roadway’s effects on the federally threatened Mojave Desert Tortoise.

Maine Department of Transportation – $9.3 million to initiate the Caribou Wildlife and Aquatic Habitat Crossing Project in the city of Caribou. The project would construct a wildlife crossing using pre-cast concrete in the form of an arch culvert to improve safety for moose, deer and other large wildlife in the city. The project would also remove two existing barriers for wildlife and fish passage.

Pueblo of Santa Ana – $6.4 million for the Sandia-Jemez Mountain Wildlife Corridor Crossing Project along 27 miles of roadway on US-550 and Interstate 25. The project would design and install wildlife overpasses and underpasses to mitigate damage to species by wildlife-vehicle collisions, including mule deer, elk, pronghorn, black bears and mountain lions.

Florida Department of Transportation – $6.1 million to construct the US-27 Venus Wildlife Crossing in southern Highlands County. The project would rebuild a nearly half mile stretch of US-27 and raise the highway to allow for the development of a wildlife underpass crossing. This underpass would be constructed utilizing a new box culvert and would involve the installation of several miles of fencing.

Georgia Department of Transportation – $2.1 million for the Georgia Statewide Best Practices and Decision-making Tools for Wildlife Crossing and Safety Considerations initiative. The project would institute a strategic framework for which the department would integrate wildlife-vehicle reduction efforts and increase habitat connectivity.

Massachusetts Department of Transportation – $1.7 million to initiate the I-90: Mass Pike Appalachian Trail Pedestrian-Wildlife Shared Use Crossing project in western Massachusetts. The project would begin the pre-construction design phase and permitting process before replacing an existing bridge crossing near Becket with new separated structure

The FHWA says these projects will reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and fatalities, enhance wildlife habitat connectivity and lower economic costs such as medical expenses, property damage and productivity losses. Additionally, these Wildlife Crossing Pilot Program projects will make concrete steps towards accomplishing federal environmental sustainability agendas outlined in the National Roadway Safety Strategy.

The full, comprehensive list of Wildlife Crossing program awards and project descriptions is available on the FHWA’s FY 2024-2025 grant selections webpage.

Photo courtesy Sillerkiil, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons