Wildlife Use of Highway Underpass Structures in Washington State

The impacts of roads on wildlife and the environment has been well documented. Habitat fragmentation and wildlife-vehicle collisions are among the most noticeable and costly effects. To make appropriate management decisions to rectify barriers to wildlife movement and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, it is imperative to understand what, when and where wildlife are using existing highway underpass structures to cross highways safely. This study focused on analyzing species composition and temporal patterns of wildlife detections at various crossing structures throughout Washington State. Temporal aspects of species use of different underpass structures along highways were examined to gain insight to factors potentially influencing the permeability of existing highways and structures. Results found that certain species of wildlife were detected most often at particular structure types. Carnivores were detected most abundantly at culverts, while ungulate species were detected most profusely at bridges. Temporal patterns of most species detected were crepuscular, except for bears, elk and raccoons. Wildlife and human detections shared an inverse relationship where wildlife detections peaked before and after both peak human detections. This trend was also found with wildlife detections and traffic volume. Further research is needed to better understand how human presence and traffic volumes might be affecting wildlife use of structures.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC30 Ecology and Transportation.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Starr, Hailey
  • McAllister, Kelly
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Animal vehicle crashes; Bridges; Crashes; Culverts; Highway safety; Human beings; Traffic volume; Underpasses; Wildlife; Wildlife crossings
• Geographic Terms: Washington (State)
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Environment; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01514832
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1805
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 21 2014 3:16PM