Evaluating Retrofit Opportunities for Wildlife Passage at Existing Bridges and Culverts

A Passage Assessment System (PAS) was developed to help Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) evaluate existing transportation infrastructure for its ability to pass terrestrial wildlife under and over roads. The PAS is a planning tool that assists users in determining if existing culverts, bridges, and fences can be retrofit (modified) for wildlife permeability or if replacement is necessary to pass the suites of species at that location. Wildlife permeability is the ability of individual wildlife of all species to move freely across the landscape and is crucial to maintaining healthy wildlife populations. The PAS helps ecologists and biologists familiar with the wildlife in the area and transportation infrastructure and planning to tie a structure’s characteristics with its ability in passing different types of wildlife. The user selects a road section and structures to evaluate, then takes the PAS series of questions to the field. The questions help the user evaluate the structure, the landscape, and other features with respect to the species of interest. Those species are classified into Species Movement Guilds to better assist the users in bringing scientific knowledge to the process. Once the evaluation is complete, the user makes recommendations for changes to the structure, with the assistance of the Passage Enhancement Toolbox. By providing a systematic process for discerning among structures that can be retrofit from those that cannot, a tool such as the PAS can help Departments of Transportation direct transportation planning and dollars for maximum effectiveness and cost efficiency.

• 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:
  • Cramer, Patricia
  • Kintsch, Julia
  • Jacobson, Sandra
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
• Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 19p
• Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridges and culverts; Evaluation and assessment; Habitat (Ecology); Retrofitting; Wildlife crossings
• Identifier Terms: Washington State Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I24: Design of Bridges and Retaining Walls;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01367855
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-3954
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 13 2012 10:08AM