Highway Underpasses- these things work!

[robby denning]

good article from Colorado. When we're reducing vehicle collisions at 70-90% at $4,000 per incident, it's not hard to pay for a 1.2 million$ overpass in a year or two. If I understood the article, I used their 472 collision number to come up with $1.8 million saved, not to mention human life and a bunch of deer! Even if the numbers were off by half, you'd capture your investment in two years rather than one.

sounds like studies around the world are supporting these in their data too. Cool

Colorado Parks & Wildlife -
CPW News Release

 

[young7.3]

The property I hunt here in Indiana has an overpass (large creek flows under road) and the Whitetails use it a lot!!!

 

[idahohikker]

The underpass on the winter range outside of Boise, Idaho is very well used. There are hundreds of deer and elk in the immediate area and animal collisions from IDFG reports and my anecdotal evidence suggest a dramatic reduction in animal-vehicle collisions. It used to be a bloodbath. A minor downside is there are less specimens for roadkill collection that Idaho allows

 

[robby denning]

Idahohiker, tell me you weren’t eating those specimens please

 

[mfllood3800]

In Utah where I reside they actually made "Over pass" rather than under.

The deer/elk get to take the high road.
Though I don't have trail cam pics, I did investigate last year and saw tons of tracks going and coming.

I cant remember the last dead deer I saw at the interstate where I live.
Yet 45 miles away near Cedar City, I see a deer every 2-3 miles on average during the right months.

These things do work.

 

[idahohikker]

Oh ya, Robby. Not the mangled ones but get a good broken neck roadkill and they're indistinguishable from deer I've shot. Btw, I just finished your book--love it. Thanks.

 

[PathFinder]

Awesome data, thanks for sharing. We need LOTS more of this in Utah. In some units, I think vehicle collisions kill as many deer as everything else combined. It isn't cheap but the DWR is great at spending loads of money on stupid stuff. I'm sure they have the $$, if only they're smart enough to apply it effectively.

 

[idcuda]

The underpass on the winter range outside of Boise, Idaho is very well used. There are hundreds of deer and elk in the immediate area and animal collisions from IDFG reports and my anecdotal evidence suggest a dramatic reduction in animal-vehicle collisions. It used to be a bloodbath. A minor downside is there are less specimens for roadkill collection that Idaho allows

Looks like they added a lot more fencing over the last year to help funnel critters to the underpass, too. Good to know it's working - that area was deadly.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

interesting data, good to see they work

 

[hobbes]

I'm all for saving lives (ours and the four legged kind), especially our own. I like wildlife crossings. I really like them in locations that they are warranted. Montana has a number of wildlife crossings built and you can find trailcam photos from several of them if you do a search.

However, it's tax dollars (federal and state) that are invested and it's the insurance company's money that is saved. The insurance companies aren't reimbursing the state or federal budgets (maybe individual lawmakers , so the investment pays off in lives saved and not in dollars. I recognize that some of that is deductibles, so tax payers do save some money there, but by and large it's the insurance companies that save the cash. I suppose there is some argument to be made for a reduction in premiums or maybe premiums that don't climb as fast, but I've only seen premiums move in one direction.

With all that said.....................I still like wildlife crossings (overpasses or underpasses)

 

[wyodan]

After attending recent meetings on this subject, I learned that in the long run insurance companies make money by paying claims, and thereby raising premiums. I'm not sure how Colorado figured there numbers, but ours included the value of the animal as well as some other factors. One thing is that it is estimated only about 50% of wildlife vehicle collisions are reported, so it's easy to see we are losing a lot more wildlife than the actual numbers you see reported.

 

[wyodan]

Hey all, I have some numbers to put to the success of the fence/crossing systems. I pulled some data on the success of Trapper's Point. On our overpass/underpass system here, in the 6 years prior to construction, 108 animals were hit. In the 5 years that followed, 30 animals were hit. I believe important things to note are that the years preceding the project, there is the always questionable reporting of the actual number of animals hit. I feel the Department has done a much better job of reporting the crashes post construction because of the amount of attention the project has received. Also, the number of antelope hit has been zero since the construction. There were 2 years of significant deer fatalities post construction when they figured out how to cross the cattle guards that were not regularly used, we addressed that problem and the deer fatalities has gone down significantly since then. So I believe without those 2 years in the data, it would show significantly greater success. Especially now that the animals have had a chance to learn how to move through the structures.

Also, antelope greatly prefer the overpasses, about 90%, although there have been a few that used the underpasses. Mule deer prefer the underpasses by roughly an 80%-20% ratio.

 

[robby denning]

Hey all, I have some numbers to put to the success of the fence/crossing systems. I pulled some data on the success of Trapper's Point. On our overpass/underpass system here, in the 6 years prior to construction, 108 animals were hit. In the 5 years that followed, 30 animals were hit. I believe important things to note are that the years preceding the project, there is the always questionable reporting of the actual number of animals hit. I feel the Department has done a much better job of reporting the crashes post construction because of the amount of attention the project has received. Also, the number of antelope hit has been zero since the construction. There were 2 years of significant deer fatalities post construction when they figured out how to cross the cattle guards that were not regularly used, we addressed that problem and the deer fatalities has gone down significantly since then. So I believe without those 2 years in the data, it would show significantly greater success. Especially now that the animals have had a chance to learn how to move through the structures.

Also, antelope greatly prefer the overpasses, about 90%, although there have been a few that used the underpasses. Mule deer prefer the underpasses by roughly an 80%-20% ratio.

Thanks wyodan. Those are solid numbers


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[wyodan]

Hey all, I have some better numbers now to show the effectiveness of the data. What I used previously was just the reported crashes, but I now have some carcass counts that better supports the benefits. In the 5 years prior to the beginning of construction 394 carcasses were reported through the project area. In the 5 years post construction, 78 carcasses were reported. That is over an 80% reduction in the carcass counts. I feel as though these numbers could be added to the reported crashes. While that could lead to some double reporting, with the estimated percentages of the actual number of hits, it would still be less than the actual number of animals that were hit on the roadway. As stated before, the estimated number of carcasses reported is believed to be around 50%. Once the animals get outside of the mowed area on the right of way, they are not necessarily picked up or reported. We also had the couple of years that the deer had figured out how to navigate some cattle guards. Since we have addressed that problem, I expect future numbers to continue to be very low.

 

[Brock A]

We have an overpass currently being built here in WA along the I-90 Corridor over Snoqualmie pass. Its been a several year long project but I am excited to see how benefits the animals in the future. Pretty cool to see so many organizations that usually have their heads up their asses working together to get things done.

Cascade Crossroads - YouTube

 

[wyodan]

We have an overpass currently being built here in WA along the I-90 Corridor over Snoqualmie pass. Its been a several year long project but I am excited to see how benefits the animals in the future. Pretty cool to see so many organizations that usually have their heads up their asses working together to get things done.

Cascade Crossroads - YouTube

I drove through that one last year. It will be impressive since it is essentially 2 of the ones I worked on stacked back to back. Cool video too.

 

[mcr-85]

I spent a few hours last Saturday walking the fence East of Kanab Ut fixing holes from coyotes and rain in the tall fence along the hwy there for some dedicated hunter hours. They have the underpasses for the Paunsaugunt deer herd. There were deer tracks all over along the fence and they funnel right to the underpasses. 3 or 4 trail cams from the DWR are on the underpasses as well.

 

[DB Cooper]

There is an underpass on HWY 97 south of Bend, OR that has made a huge impact on reducing collisions. Really neat stuff

Deer take to Highway 97 underpass; Collisions down in stretch near Lava Lands

 

[netman]

The highway that runs south out of Kremmling has it going on for animal protection. My buddy told me that before they did the overpass, underpass ,fencing and the fence ramps that section of highway was a slaughterhouse.