"Wildlife crossings aren't cheap either, especially if they're built from scratch. According to the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, overpasses can run between $1 million and $7 million depending on their size and the terrain. Idaho's first wildlife overpass, built near Boise at Cervidae Peak in 2023, cost $6.5 million. By comparison, the Osburn bridge project came to about $645,000, with the primary cost being for fencing to funnel the wildlife toward the bridge."
"It's common knowledge that elk, whitetail deer, coyotes and even moose cross the freeway near the bridge. Community members use a Facebook group as a way to alert each other whenever there are animals on or near the road. Laura Wolf, a regional wildlife biologist with Idaho Game and Fish, noted that the stretch of I-90 between Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the Montana border has the second-highest density of roadkill on the entire freeway, which runs from Seattle all the way to Minneapolis."
Elk migrate from Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Mountains into Silver Valley each fall and winter and often attempt to cross Interstate 90, creating dangerous interactions with vehicles. Collisions between motorists and wildlife kill more than 200 people and injure over 26,000 annually in the U.S., costing over $8 billion. Overpasses typically cost $1 million to $7 million; Idaho's 2023 Cervidae Peak overpass cost $6.5 million. A community-led conversion of a defunct bridge in Osburn into a wildlife crossing cost about $645,000, largely for fencing to funnel animals. The project originated with Osburn resident Carl Wilson, a long-haul trucker. The I-90 corridor near Coeur d'Alene has very high roadkill density.
Read at High Country News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]